Eileen Myles at Elliott Bay Book Company, October 10, 2009

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Splabman

She was named by BUST magazine as “the rock star of modern poetry” & that would usually be the death knell for a poet in my book, but in the case of Eileen Myles, it’s only slightly hyperbolic. She was at Elliott Bay Book last night for a Wave Press authors event and unlike Maggie Nelson, who also read, the book Myles was promoting was not a Wave title. Myles acknowledged this by saying it was kinda like having an affair.
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Charles Olson

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Splabman

USAmericans LOVE their dead poets. Especially those who they can’t or aren’t able to understand during the poet’s life. Charles Olson is another case in point. Living in poverty at the end of his life in 1970, Charles Olson was the subject of a major panel, reading and exhibition in Tucson, Arizona (of all places) in October of 2008. Charles Olson: Language as Physical Fact happened at the University of Arizona Poetry Center and was sponsored by CHAX Press. A few more details are available here: http://chax.org/eoagh/issuefive/olson.html

Curriculum of the Soul, a Charles Olson Centennial Conference, happens June 4 through 6, 2010, at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, where their Special Collections Library specializes in Beat and Black Mountain literature.

Of course, one of the best spots for Olson news is the OlsonNow blog: http://olsonnow.blogspot.com/

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Silliman’s Blog

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Splabman

For a poet in the U.S., one can get the impression that academic poetry is all that is happening, all that matters in USAmerican letters. For those who crave more (you crave more don’t you?) a blog dedicated to the outsiders in poetry might be the most popular poetry blog of them all.

Kept by language poet Ron Silliman, his blog sometimes veers into the no man’s land of this school vs. that school, which can be tedious when he gets on his anti School of Quietude horse, but we get what he means and we appreciate that there is someone chronicling the outsider view of North American poetics.

We also appreciate the links he gathers and posts in large batches, though we wish sometimes they weren’t so GD long. http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/

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Fred Wah Book Release Party

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Splabman

Last night I drove up to Vancouver to attend the Fred Wah book release party. With Fred as the night’s headliner and the emcee being George Bowering, two of the most important North American poets of a generation, I knew this would be an event well worth attending. I left Seattle early, checked into the downtown hostel and arrived WAY early, but basically had my pick of seats.

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