For the Poetry Foundation blog, David Winter interviews Night Sky With Exit Wounds author Ocean Vuong about poetry, how art is like public transportation, and turning your back on your own work. Pair with Andrew Kay’s Millions essay on the power of poetry.
Hop on the Raft
Waywords and Meansigns
Recommended listening: Waywords and Meansigns, a new project that's set out to record Finnegans Wake in its entirety and set it to music. The complete work will be released on May 4th, but there are already a few samples available online.
Bad Sex Awards 2012
Tom Wolfe has a chance to defend (er, ward off?) his 2004 "Bad Sex Award" following Literary Review's decision to nominate him for this year's top honors (er, dishonors?). The UK publication has tapped Back to Blood and seven others for this year's shortlist -- and, despite popular demand, they managed to spare J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy. For some revealing passages from Wolfe's book, check out my review.
MIT’s Open Documentary Lab
Andrew Phelps interviews Sarah Wolzin, director of MIT's new Open Documentary Lab, which "brings technologists, storytellers, and scholars together to advance the new arts of documentary." The Lab, according to Phelps, is "part think tank, part incubator for filmmakers and hackers."