Carl Phillips has brilliantly answered all of your questions! Rae Armantrout & Mark Doty recently answered questions too. New PQA Poet soon...

Poet(s) currently taking questions: None.

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Wislawa Szmborska Dies at 88.

Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature, died of lung cancer on Wednesday in Krakow, Poland.

The next issue of Smartish Pace (#19, April, 2012) ... [ read more ]

Frank O'Hara & Jan Cremer in Baltimore

Load of Fun Gallery (LOF/g), in collaboration with the i.e. Reading Series, hosts a silkscreen print exhibition and poetry reading. The exhibition combines silkscreen printed poems of Baltimore native Frank O’Hara, silkscreen illustrations ... [ read more ]

Aaron Poochigian, Smartish Pace Reading

Aaron Poochigian reading for Smartish Pace at the Issue 16 Release Party at Cyclops, Baltimore, on May 15, 2009. This was a joint party with the DC lit magazine, Barrelhouse. Intro by Stephen Reichert of Smartish Pace. Intro/Outro music by Pree.

Interview with Shara McCallum

Magdelyn Hammond: When did you start writing poetry? Have you always considered yourself a poet, or are there parts of yourself that were always a poet even before you started to write seriously? Shara McCallum: I started writing poetry seriously about the same time I came to Maryland. I was almost 22 then. I had always written poetry, as far back as I can remember, but I think of that period as marking my beginnings as a writer because it was when I began to consider the craft of a poem consciously and deliberately. I don't know when I began to think of myself as a poet -- that's not a word I use very often in relation to myself. I say I write poetry but rarely say I am a poet. I'm not afraid of the word per se but the phrase "I am a poet" seems somewhat static and stilted. Writing poetry is something I see as active whereas being a poet makes me think of someone sitting around waiting for inspiration or someone posing in some fashion as a "poet." As to the other ways I was becoming a "poet" before really being serious about ... [ read more ]

AWP

2/29/2012 (8:00am) -- 3/3/2012 (11:55pm)

Hilton Chicago & Palmer House Hilton, Table K21

Bookfair is Free on Sat

Please stop by table K21 for the new issue, t-shirts, one-of-a-kind SP merch & fun for all. The SP editors look forward to seeing you in Chicago!

http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2012bookfair.php

32 Poems & Smartish Pace Reading

3/1/2012 (9:00pm) -- (10:00pm)

Topics Cafe, 2122 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614

Free

A joint magazine poetry reading featuring 5 minute readings by: Todd Boss, Geoff Brock, Victoria Chang, Carolina Ebeid, Luke Johnson, Rebecca Lindenberg, Erika Meitner, Mary Quade, Natalie Shapero & Eric Smith.

Essay: The Problem of Originality

Q: What is American about American Poetry? A: Some years ago Donald Hall coined a memorable term for school-based, formulaic American poetry: the McPoem. I thought about it recently as I pulled off US 1 to grab breakfast at McDonalds. Has our poetry joined the mass-culture melting pot? The menu on the billboard reads: "Egg McMuffin, Breakfast Fajitas, French Fries, Hash Brown." Typical American gruel to be sure, but showing the mix of ... [ read more ]