New Plath Poem Discovered

"Poets don"t just come out of an overwhelming emotional experience. They come out of study and hard work." -Gregory Donovan, co-editor Blackbird magazine A grad student at Virginia Commonwealth University has unearthed a previously unpublished sonnet by Sylvia Plath. The poem was apparently written in Plath"s senior year at Smith College, and was written in reaction to the poet"s reading of F. Scott ...

BBC NEWS | Europe | Nobel for anti-poverty pioneers

What is news about an economist doing on a blog about poetry? Because occasionally, I find something that I believe is so important, everyone should hear it and know it. This is one of those things - not just the announcement about the award of a Nobel Peace Prize, but the person and organization that was chosen, and the reason for ...

The Lack of Poetry

In case you missed it, yesterday, October 5, was National Poetry Day in the UK. I"ve been poking around at the various bits of news and note that came out of the day with interest, and find it both amusing and surprising. Perhaps it"s because I"ve been immersed in poetry and its world for most of my life, but when people speak of ...

iPoems Launches

I told you about this a few months back - the Brit company that was going to offer downloads of poetry for $.95 each. Well, it"s here and it"s happening today. Not only is it happening today, but they"ve caused enough of a splash to make the front page of Yahoo and get a short news story there. iPoems is modeled on iTunes, and will let people download ...

Poetry Festival Wins Alternate Nobel Prize

The function of art in general and of poetry in particular has not been or is to solve the fundamental problems of men and women. Its function is to remind us, from an ever new perspective, the existence of these problems. And our potential to solve them. Poetry and art are there to widen our conscience, and to spur it on an ...