Recommended Listening: Mary Doty, Linda Gregerson, and Jane Hirshfield discuss the history and nature of the lyric poem. Pair with Andrew Kay’s Millions essay on the power of poetry.
An American Lyric
Empathy for the Devil?
Ruth Franklin of TNR probes the weaknesses of American novels about terrorism.
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Biological Music
“Seaquence is an experiment in musical composition. Adopting a biological metaphor, you can create and combine musical lifeforms resulting in an organic, dynamic composition.”
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Down the Rabbit Hole
Recommended Reading: In her new memoir, Joyce Carol Oates praises Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass as “the singular book that changed my life – that made me yearn to be a writer.”
Monday Links
The Rake takes note of the New Yorker's particularly dark reading of Goodnight Moon.Iain Hollingshead gamely responds to being awarded the "Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award" for his debut novel Twentysomething, which included such turns of phrase as "everything is pure white as we're lost in a commotion of grunts and squeaks."With a few celebs getting in trouble for racist outbursts this year Malcolm Gladwell (ever thoughtful) comes up with a way to figure out who's really being offensive and who's just dumb.Maud points to a new blog from one of my favorite publishers, NYRB Press.Dozens of year end-lists floating around here and elsewhere, but I always take special note of Jonathan Yardley's year-end column because it is always thoughtful and sometimes surprising.To do (as soon as I have the time): listen to the Bat Segundo Show that features Edward P. Jones.
An Anonymous Evangelical Poetry Fan
In what might be the first sighting of its kind, an anonymous evangelical poetry fan has made an appearance in the comments of Elizabeth Lucy Conway's recent essay on teaching poetry.
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