Johnston Sunrise
Local poety releases first CD of recordings, 'There's Poetry in the Stars'
By Beth Hurd, July 24, 2008

Some may know Sandy Lane Famiglietti as the author of two childrens books, or as accordion player who performs with the Johnston Lions at local nursing homes at the holidays. Famiglietti has also been making her name known in the poetry world for several years.

Inspired to write by events on a local, national or even international scale, she has recorded a CD of 20 poems called “There’s Poetry in the Stars.”

Worcester News
Prize for writing up for grabs
By Sally Jones, July 24, 2008

A FORMER Worcester woman who now lives in Hong Kong has co-founded a new literary prize and is urging county people to take part.

Gillian Bickley was head girl of Worcester City Grammar School for Girls in 1961, and the only daughter of the late Leonard and Catherine Workman, who both taught at various schools in Worcester, including St George’s CE Primary School.

UC San Diego News Center
New UC San Diego Exhibition Envisages Future of Nanoparticles and Distributed Social Cinema
By Eduardo Navas and Doug Ramsey, July 22, 2008

New-media art installations that caution visitors about a future when books are relics of the past, and nanoparticles represent a pervasive threat to human health, will be on display starting August 4 at the gallery @ calit2 on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.

The joint exhibition will present “SPECFLIC 2.6” by UC San Diego Visual Arts professor Adriene Jenik, and “Particles of Interest” by *particle group*, an art collective composed of independent and UCSD-based artists and writers.

McMicken College of Arts & Sciences
Professor's Poetry Passion Pays Off in 'Classics Style'
By Britt Kennerly, July 23, 2008

The poems Kathryn Gutzwiller has pored over since the 1990s are short, usually between two and 10 lines in length.

Yet the ancient epigrams this professor of classics loves possess lengthy, rich meaning – and critical interest worldwide, judging by the $120,000 in awards for Gutzwiller over the past few months.

Gutzwiller applied for four grants, she says, "because usually only some grants are successful … receiving all four was very surprising."

Sequim Gazette
Going Green Through Words
By Avani Nadkarni, July 23, 2008

Hugh McGee was eco-friendly long before it was trendy.

An avid nature lover who often hiked in the mountains in Gunnison, Colo., McGee was walking along the campus of the city’s Western State College when he noticed some garbage littering the ground. Annoyed, McGee picked it up and threw it in the trash.

Belfast Telegraph
Bob Dylan Art Collection Coming To Belfast
By Gary Fennelly, July 23, 2008

The first ever collection of art from cultural icon Bob Dylan is coming to Belfast.

The 'Drawn Blank Series' will be on display in the Bradbury Gallery in Belfast on Saturday 9 August.

Based on drawings and sketches made by Dylan while on the road from 1989 to 1992, the watercolour and gouache paintings in The Drawn Blank Series were created by Dylan during 2007 and echo the stylistic hallmarks of Dylan’s prose, poetry and music.

NewsOK.com
Poetry Focuses On Biblical Story Of Job To Challenge Reader
By Paul Lehman, July 23, 2008

In "Not Exactly Job” (Mongrel Empire Press, $14), Nathan Brown of Norman has created an extraordinary work of poetry that challenges the reader. The challenges come in the questions created in the book's format. All of Brown's poems in this collection focus on some aspect of the Bible's book of Job.

Poetry Foundation
The Heft Of Words
By Robert Leiter, July 22, 2008

Poet Louis Zukofsky thrived on a lush mix of sound and sense.

Louis Zukofsky has been called the most influential poet you've never heard of. Much like his fellow Objectivist, Charles Reznikoff, he toiled in almost complete obscurity, unknown to readers and critics alike, though during his lifetime, he and his work were beloved by many other poets.

The Seattle Times
Top Poet Aims For Brevity, Ephemeral Substance
By Bob Thompson, The Washington Post, July 22, 2008

WASHINGTON — More than a decade and a half ago, despairing that her poems would ever find an audience, Kay Ryan found herself writing one about a turtle. It was about as personal as a Kay Ryan poem ever gets.

Ryan's appointment as the nation's new poet laureate, announced last week by Librarian of Congress James Billington, will cap one of the most unusual careers in American letters. Hers is "a very original poetic voice," Billington says, "almost the antithesis of the things you hear booming at you every day."

Wicked Local (tm) Truro
Decoding Dickinson
By Michelle Koch, July 22, 2008

PROVINCETOWN - Emily Dickinson’s exposure to congregational church music indelibly influenced her poetry, says Noel Tipton, “Making me think of it, for her, as a kind of a game — hear a hymn, make up words.”

“Amherst Sabbath,” an original work written by Tipton, tells the Dickinson story through readings of the poet’s works, letters and journals, and the singing of congregational hymn music. Leading a small group of costumed actors and a chorus of singers will be Nauset Regional High School graduate Leslie Bennett, who returns to the Cape to play Dickinson.

The Evening Sun
Poetry Column: Sneaky Tactics Behind Mastering Mirrors
By Michael Hoover, July 21, 2008

In part, most poets are chroniclers. They record truthfully, though maybe not realistically, the times in which they live. They couch their stories in metaphor and allusion. They compare and refer, rather than state directly.

Poets hold before us mirrors of our nature or behavior as human beings, but the reflection is distorted intentionally, like a carnival's house of mirrors. The truth is easier to take in, sometimes, when it is not so bald-faced. As Emily Dickinson wrote, "Tell the truth but tell it slant."

Guardian.co.uk
Critics: Are We Just Loudmouths?
By Jonathan Jones, July 21, 2008

Criticism must go back to basics - and the methods of Empson, Greenberg and Leavis - for our opinions to matter again

Are critics dead? They still stagger on, course, and always will. Everyone has an opinion about the film they just saw, the book they read. Some people will always get so heated up in their critical opinions that they become ... critics, and so long as you read us we won't go away. But that's not really the point of recent laments on "the death of the critic". What has passed away is a certain kind of revered and influential critical voice, it is sometimes said: where are today's equivalents of the poet and critic William Empson, the art critic Clement Greenberg, the critic of the novel FR Leavis?

Wicked Local(tm) Hopkinton
Poem Prescription
By Cheryl Perreault, July 21, 2008

"Helene Royce-Tolland is one of the most caring, compassionate people I’ve ever met. She has made a huge impact on hundreds of students during her teaching career who remember her long after they leave her classroom. She has been invited to the Middle School Elder Tea many times by former students which is indicative of the impact she has made upon them. She will be greatly missed by her students, parents, and Elmwood community." --Ilene Silver, Principal of Elmwood Elementary School

Weekend Post
Bay Teacher Gets Third Crack At Poetry Prize
By Luyolo Mkentane, July 19, 2008

A DESPATCH high school teacher and artist is off to the United States next week after being nominated for a third time as Poet of the Year by the International Society of Poets (ISP).

Makhosonke “Chief” Fundakubi, 44, an English and life orientation teacher at Despatch High School, said the competition would be held in Las Vegas from Thursday to Sunday next week.

Guardian.co.uk
Quantum Poetics
By Nick Laird, July 19, 2008

A friend emailed months ago and asked me to contribute to an anthology of "space poems". He was pairing up poets with astronomers in the hopes that new poetry would result, and my counterpart was Paul Murdin, the treasurer of the Royal Astronomical Society. Paul discovered a black hole in Cygnus X-1, and is the author of many popular books on the universe. For my part, I've been reading up on all things cosmic. I have a sheaf of random notes but no poems, and the commission was due in April.