poetry – The News Desk

24Dec

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Entertainment

A Forgotten Book of Christmas Poems

What makes a Christmas poem? It could be a drift of snow or some evergreen trees, a box of candy canes or the baby Jesus. The best-known poem attending to the holiday is probably “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” also known as “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” with characters such as quiet mice, clattering reindeer, and toy-toting Santa Claus. My favorite poem of the season is the prologue to the Gospel of John, although it lacks stables and mangers and swaddled babes. “Christmas poem” is a capacious category, occupied by a wide range of poems and populated by a startling variety of poets.I was reminded of this when I finally tracked down a copy of a book I’d long heard about but never read. “American Christmas” was first published in 1965; I now own a copy of the second edition of the anth...

18Oct

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Entertainment

Evie Shockley Reads Rita Dove

Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You ListenSign up to receive our weekly Books & Fiction newsletter.Photograph by Stéphane RobolinEvie Shockley joins Kevin Young to read “Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove,” by Rita Dove, and her own poem “the blessings.” Shockley is the author of six poetry collections and the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University. Her honors include the 2023 Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, a Lannan Literary Award, the Stephen Henderson Award, and, twice, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry.

17Oct

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Entertainment

Louise Glück, Remembered by Writers

Louise Glück, who contributed poems to The New Yorker for half a century, died on Friday. We’ve gathered reflections on her life and work from writers and poets who knew, read, and studied with Glück.In the fall of 2005, I signed up to take Louise Glück’s writing workshop. At our small liberal-arts college, Professor Glück cut an intimidating figure. My classmates and I knew it was a privilege to be in her company. The Nobel was still more than a decade off, but she had won awards, big ones, we were vaguely aware. More important, she was a practicing poet. Was it tedious for her to be in our company? The class was called Introduction to Poetry, and there were no prerequisites for entry. Most of us did not know what poetry was and mistook curlicues, flourishes, and acrobatic metaphors for ...

Paul Harding and Justin Torres are among the National Book Award finalists

3Oct

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Entertainment

Paul Harding and Justin Torres are among the National Book Award finalists

NEW YORK -- Paul Harding's Maine-based historical novel “This Other Eden,” Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s dystopian “Chain-Gang All-Stars” and Justin Torres' multi-generational “Blackouts” are among the fiction finalists for the National Book Awards. Fiction judges also selected Aaliyah Bilal's debut story collection “Temple Folk” and Hanna Pylväinen's “The End of Drum-Time,” set in 19th century Scandinavia. On Tuesday, the National Book Foundation announced finalists in four other competitive categories: nonfiction, poetry, translation and young people's literature. The foundation, which presents the awards, released long lists of 10 last month. Winners will be announced at a dinner ceremony in Manhattan on Nov. 15, when poet Rita Dove and longtime City Lights bookseller Paul Yamazaki will r...

21Sep

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Entertainment

Dorothea Lasky Reads Louise Bogan

Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You ListenSign up to receive our weekly Books & Fiction newsletter.Photograph by Paul Bruinooge / GettyDorothea Lasky joins Kevin Young to read “Three Songs,” by Louise Bogan, and her own poem “The Green Lake.” Lasky is the author of several books of poetry and prose, including her forthcoming collection, “The Shining.” She is the co-creator, with Alex Dimitrov, of Astro Poets, and she teaches poetry at Columbia University.