Poetry On The Web

There is a lot going on in the world of spoken word and poetry on the web. Here are a few of the articles that caught my eye this week.

Worcester’s premiere poetry venue to close its doors

Worcester Telegram & Gazette – After more than 1,200 open mics, 600 featured poets and 15 homegrown slam teams, the Worcester Poets’ Asylum will be going on an “extended hiatus” from hosting its weekly readings and will return sometime next year in a new and smaller form. Read more.

Maya Angelou Views Poetry as Soul’s Medicine

The Pitt News – Maya Angelou has 71 doctorate degrees, more than 4 million Facebook friends and said she loves Shakespeare so much she’d swear he was a black girl. Read more.

News From Lake Wobegon: Garrison Keillor Has A New Book Of Poetry

NPR – If you’re a regular public radio listener, you may hear Garrison Keillor every morning reading other people’s poems on The Writer’s Almanac. Now, thePrairie Home Companion host has decided to share some of his own poems for a change. In his new collection — O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic and Profound — he muses on subjects including Kansas, California, marriage, parenthood, mice, manners, Hennepin Avenue and Times Square. Read more.

Former Poet Laureate Pinsky Designs Anthology for Aspiring Poets

BU Today – For years, aspiring poets have asked three-time US poet laureate Robert Pinsky one seemingly simple question: “What should I read to learn about writing poetry?” And for years, the College of Arts & Sciences professor of English has advised them to “find things they like a lot, and study them,” a better course, he says, than consulting a textbook or an expert’s reading list. Read more.

92nd Street Y Celebrates Poetry Center

Wall Street Journal -“We have Truman Capote here in 1949 and you look across the room and there he is in 1964,” said Bernard Schwartz, director of the 92nd Street Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center. “The letter from Richard Wilbur in 1949 preceded his reading here in 1950 and his last reading at the Poetry Center was in 2009. Read more.