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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 ]

Elizabeth Arnold, Smartish Pace Reading

Elizabeth Arnold reading for Smartish Pace at Artomatic in Washington, DC on June 12, 2009. Intro by Stephen Reichert of Smartish Pace.

Interview with Aaron Poochigian

Traci O’Dea (Associate Editor, Smartish Pace): How has translating Sappho affected your own poetry?

Aaron Poochigian: I had always wanted each line of my poetry to be songlike and ravishing. Now, after having lived with Sappho for about two years, I have a better sense of what that means. But I should be more specific about her influence. Many of Sappho’s poems give the reader the impression that he or she is eavesdropping on a private conversation, as in the following fragment:As you are dear to me go find a youngerBed as your due.I can’t stand being the old one any longer,Living with you.I now readily slip into the conversational mode in my own work. Sappho, in fact, is credited with pioneering the “personal” in poetry, partly because she gives the reader this window into the intimate. She also makes frequent use of what I call “choral” expression—that is, the speaker as a first person plural “we” representing a group of people. I now often write poems in “group voices.” Perhaps the poem “The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis” is the best evidence of her influence on my work.     The Marriage ... [ 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 ]