Gossip is often seen as inherently frivolous and trashy, which is why it’s odd that a poet would use it as the subject of his or her work. On The Poetry Foundation’s blog, Austin Allen writes about George Green’s collection Lord Byron’s Foot, in which, as Allen puts it, “the dish spares no one.” (h/t Arts and Letters Daily)
Did You Hear?
“Platonic Word”
Recommended reading: Edward Mendelson reflects on "how bizarrely Platonic [Microsoft] Word can be" and on writing in WordPerfect, where "the world seems more open, a place where endings can’t be predicted, where freedom might be real."
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RIP Elmore Leonard
RIP Elmore Leonard, who passed away this morning at his home in Michigan at the age of 87. Our own Bill Morris got to the heart of what made Leonard a special writer in his 2010 piece about the prolific crime novelist.
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Lemony Snicket’s Poetry Selections
Lemony Snicket curated a “children’s poetry portfolio” for Poetry, however the poems contained therein “are not made for children.” Take a look for yourself. There are selections from Maram al-Massri, Carl Sandburg, Katerina Rudcenkova, Ron Padgett, and more.
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This Isn’t Your Mother’s DoubleX
The debut issue of Candor magazine is like a Sassy for the intellectual set, rife with wit (Emily Gould and Merisa Meltzer discuss Away We Go), intelligence (writer mother Rachel Zucker and woman writer Sarah Manguso speak candidly about identity, motherhood, women’s prejudices and writing), and women’s rights (Atossa Abrahamian considers the rhetoric of the rape victim).