Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Just because I was the last one picked for dodgeball doesn’t mean I don’t have a competitive nature, and I’m totally bummed that no one invited me to the Booklist editors’ gaming session at Jake’s (see the “Dark & Stormy Afternoon“ posts for more info).
So rather than get mad, I’m getting even. To distract Likely Stories readers from the play-by-play of [...]

…And £40,000 for a lifetime of excellence in literature and being awesome. David Cohen Prize Judges’ Chair Andrew Motion said it better:
“[Heaney's work has] crystallised the story of our times, in language which has bravely and memorably continued to extend its imaginative reach”, and for his critical writing, his translations and his lecturing, which “have [...]

Computer “archaeologist” David Ward has unearthed a software program from the early days of the Cold War that does something much more deadly than target missiles: it writes poetry. Badly. (”World’s First Computer Was Used to Generate Love Poetry,” by Nigel Bunyan, Telegraph.) Visit the Manchester Mark I emulator if you dare–and don’t say I [...]

First wovels and now poegels. I’m pretty sure the poegels won’t end up in p-books, however. Bear in mind that poegels are essentially something William S. Burroughs used to do with paper, scissors, and glue–which sounds like a lot more fun.
And here’s Annie Dillard’s take, which, again, didn’t require the internet. (Thanks, Donna!)
I hereby announce the “e-nopoemsaygle,” a [...]

More video. You are no doubt aware of our disgraced ex-governor’s penchant for poesy (see “Blagojevich’s Poetry Obsession Explained,” by Russell Goldman, ABC News)–naturally, it’s perfect for parody.

Jason Sudeikis’ Chicago-guy accent doesn’t do justice to Blagojevich’s way of talking, but what the heck. It’s funnier than the real deal’s appearance on the Late Show last night, [...]

I feel like one of those news anchors who follows a bus crash story with a humorous segment on a waterskiing squirrel, but–in case you missed Stephen Colbert telling Elizabeth Alexander that he literally has a mountain in his pants:

Barack Obama: the forty-fourth president of the United States of America.
Elizabeth Alexander: the fourth poet to read at a U.S. president’s inauguration.
Graywolf Press will be releasing Alexander’s poem, “Praise Song for the Day,” as a chapbook on February 6. Which is good, because, in this humble scribe’s opinion, the poem works better on the page than [...]

The poetry beat is getting more and more seedy. From The Independent (”Chinese ‘classical poem’ was brothel ad,” by Clifford Coonan):
There were red faces on the editorial board of one of Germany’s top scientific institutions, the Max Planck Institute, after it ran the text of a handbill for a Macau strip club on the front page of its [...]

The poetry beat ain’t always pretty. From the Guardian (”Two new Burns poems discovered,” by Alison Flood):
His love might have been like a red red rose, but it turns out that Robert Burns may also have been suffering from a rather nasty STD, according to a collection of explicit writing apparently by Scotland’s national bard, [...]

Though I try to keep an eye on the poetry beat, my efforts are woefully inadequate. Today I’ll do better. In Donna Seaman’s review of Kevin Coval’s Everyday People in the December 1 issue of Booklist, it caught my eye when Donna noted that the white, Jewish, suburban-raised hip-hop poet’s works contain “beef jerky and sandalwood incense.” And if [...]