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Denise Levertov: A Poet’s Life by Dana Greene

Her legacy is being honored with a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery’s Poetic Likeness exhibition.  Author Dana Greene will talk about Denise Levertov’s life (1923-1997) and sign books on October 24 (Levertov’s 89th birthday) at 12:00 noon, 2nd Floor, North Wing, in front of Denise Levertov portrait.  It is free to the public.

The book has received positive early reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and The Washington Times.

Michael S. Harper
“Canon Maker: Poet, Editor, Teacher, Mentor, Scholar”
Wednesday – Friday, March 13-15, 2013

The English Department at The University of Missouri – Columbia in conjunction with Cave Canem Foundation invites scholars, poets, and jazz musicians to participate in a three-day academic symposium that celebrates and
explores the multi-faceted contributions of Michael S. Harper. The symposium will begin on Wednesday, March 13 and conclude on Friday, March 15, 2013 with a musical tribute and jazz poetry reading.

Michael Harper, Professor of English at Brown University since 1970, is the
author of 15 books of poetry, the most recent of which is Use Trouble (University
of Illinois Press, 2009). His Dear John, Dear Coltrane and Images of Kin were
nominated for the National Book Award. He edited The Collected Poems of
Sterling A. Brown, selected for the National Poetry Series in 1979, and Every
Shut Eye Ain’t Asleep. With Anthony Walton, he co-edited The Vintage Book of
African American Poetry and is co-editor of Chant of Saints, an anthology of
African-American Art, Writing and Scholarship.

He was the first Poet Laureate of the State of Rhode Island and has received
many honors, including the 2008 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of
America, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and a National
Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Award. In 1990 he received the Robert
Hayden Poetry Award from the United Negro College Fund. He has been
honored with honorary doctorates in Letters from Trinity College (Hartford, CT),
Coe College (Cedar Rapids, IA), Notre Dame College (Manchester, NH), Kenyon
College (Gambier, OH), and Rhode Island College (Providence, RI). Washington
& Jefferson College (Washington, PA). He was elected to the American Academy
of Arts & Sciences in 1995.

For more than 42 years, Michael S. Harper has not only created a body of work
that has changed the way that African-American poetry is viewed, there are four
generations of published novelists, poets, playwrights, and professors who credit
his teaching, mentorship and scholarship for their beginning.

This symposium promises to be a stimulating set of conversations and
performances celebrating the work and vision of Harper (just days before his 75th
birthday on March 18.)

We invite one-page abstracts for individual papers and panels. Students are also
invited to submit abstracts for consideration. Abstract and proposals should be
submitted via email to mahdk7@mail.missouri.edu (please put Michael Harper
Symposium and your last name in the subject line) and should be in either
Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, or Rich Text format, 12 pt, Times Roman. Abstracts
and proposals should include the following:

A cover page that contains the following information for abstracts and panels:

1. Author’s name
2. Title of Submission
3. Institutional affiliation
4. Contact information (email, phone number, mailing address)

Send abstracts for papers and panels by November 16, 2012. Notification of
acceptance will be made by January 28, 2013.

We are also seeking regional and local jazz artists to perform on the final night of
the conference. Performers should send a link to one live performance video and
bio to Glenn North at gnorth@kcjazz.org by December 7, 2012.

The Atlantic online

“The fact that Laurie Lambeth’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) came after only one month — and after only one ‘event’ — made it a relatively uncommon one. Most people have at least a couple separate events (symptoms or flare-ups) before they’re diagnosed. Lambeth’s first symptom, at age 17, was numbness that spread up her left arm and down her body.”

A portrait of poet Denise Levertov (1923-1997) will be included in the exhibit.

In September 2012 the University of Illinois Press will publish the biography Denise Levertov: A Poet’s Life by Dana Greene, Dean Emerita of Oxford College of Emory University.

Dr. Greene has been invited to speak at the National Portrait Gallery, in conjunction with the Poetic Likeness exhibition, at 12:00 noon on October 24, 2012, Denise Levertov’s 89th birthday.

Q:  You mention “poetry’s current disciplinary crisis in the American  academy.” What is the nature of this crisis?

A:  Since the advent of more historically-based approaches in the literary academy in the  early 1990s, poetry has declined noticeably in its status among scholars of American literature relative to prose fiction and other forms of prose. In fact, one major book of scholarly essays on New Historicism and American literature  contains no work dealing with poetry at all, as if “American literature” was to  be understood entirely as American fiction. There’s a perception around that poetry and history don’t mix, or that poems don’t speak to historical contexts as vividly as prose works do. I don’t believe this is true, and I hope my book shows that many poems of the 1910s and 1920s spoke powerfully to the most  pressing concerns of modern American life at that moment.

From the AAUP site:
Judging for the 2010 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show took place January 28-29 at the AAUP Central Office in New York City. Approximately 281 books, 286 jacket and cover design entries, and 8 journals were entered. From this pool of excellent design, the jurors chose 56 books, 1 journal, and 40 jackets/covers as the very best examples.

Penn Sound has posted audio clips of the event.

Readers include Ira Livingston, Maria Damon, Tracie Morris, Charles Bernstein, Amitava Kumar, Renato Rosaldo, and Pierre Joris.

Sponsored by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library, the award recognizes books that exemplify the best writing in the state during a given year.

Congratulations, David.