David Orr investigates the day jobs of some modern poets, and notes “the university job is a relatively recent development in Anglo-American poetry.” Indeed, as this playful illustration from Incidental Comics makes clear, poets have engaged in a wide array of salaried jobs – from pediatricians to bank clerks to diplomats. Previously, we took a look at writers and their day jobs, too.
Poets and Their Day Jobs
In the Pope’s Own Words
Over at Asymptote, Oonagh Stransky talks about the transformative experience of translating Pope Francis. As she puts it, “I not only discovered a gentle, deeply human side to this Pope, I felt something change or soften inside me.”
Nothing to Say
“The first section of the book inevitably ends up taking on a Rashomon-ic quality, as Sotatsu’s father, mother, brother and sister all get their say about what transpired during his time in prison, along with a prison guard who observed him. But [Jesse] Ball doesn’t let them fall into the he said-she said realm of one-note characters — these are fully fleshed-out people, whose thoughts, emotions and agendas are as real (and sometimes as contradictory) as your own.” On Silence Once Begun.
Gatsby That Almost Were
From Letters of Note, the correspondence between Fitzgerald and his editor upon the former’s completion of The Great Gatsby (including Fitzgerald’s suggestion for an alternative title: Gold-hatted Gatsby). In response to the many endings of A Farewell to Arms, Slate cooks up 48 canned, alternative endings for Fitzgerald’s masterpiece.