E-Verse Radio

Ernest Hilbert, with Caleb Barber and novelist Dave King, at the Bowery Poetry Club

Hey, stop by the Bowery Poetry Club on Wednesday, March 31st, for an evening of new American writers.
Click here for the Academy of American Poets listing.
Ernest Hilbert with poet Caleb Barber and Dave King, author of the best-selling The Ha-Ha, soon to be a major motion picture starring Josh Brolin.
March 31, 2010, 6 PM
Bowery Poetry [...]

Levi Stahl Urges Ernest Hilbert to Write a Noir Novel-in-Verse over at Quarterly Conversation

Mr. Stahl, poetry editor for Quarterly Conversation, writes on their new blog, Constant Conversation:
Even the least money-conscious among us has a fantasy about what he’d do if he came into a windfall of absurd proportions, right? A trip around the world? An apartment in Tokyo? A shelf full of rare first editions?
Me, I think I’d [...]

“The Dramatic Element” by David Yezzi

David Yezzi’s new essay on the dramatic element in poetry is making some waves, sowing controversy, and raising some hackles, as usual. Here is a bit of it. Click here to read the rest.
The critic David Orr was, I believe, talking about the current state of the lyric when he characterized “the trendiest contemporary style,” [...]

Molly’s Books is Back!

After a two year vacation, Molly’s Books is back in the Italian Market in South Philadelphia, so while you’re stocking up on bison loin and red snapper, stop in and grab a book to read on the way home.
We are open from Wednesday through Friday, from 12 till 6 and Saturday and Sunday from 10 [...]

Faulkner, Exley, Chandler? Who’s the Greatest Drunk American Writer? (#1 is a Tie!)

Head over to SofaKingDrunk.com to see the list of top ten greatest drunk American writers of all time.

Here are a few choice remarks on the subject by the contenders:
“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” – Ernest Hemingway
“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to [...]

2010 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

Novelists, biographers, historians, poets, critics, politicians, soldiers, public servants, scientists, and medics will be joined by artists, philosophers, theologians, architects, engineers, botanists, environmentalists and children’s writers.

Verse Theater Lives at the Bowery Poetry Club

Verse Theater Manhattan
presents
Dirty Dan & Other Travesties
New Verse Monologues by David Yezzi
Music by Chris Lee
Wednesday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), 8 PM
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, NYC

“Why would I subcribe to a poetry magazine that doesn’t like my poetry?”: Tim Green on the World of Poetry Publishing

Tim Green wrote an observant and surely accurate post on the current state of American poetry publishing over at his blog. Check it out. Here’s a clip:
I’ve explained this situation countless times over the last five years, and I always assumed it was just sour grapes—“My poems are me, and if you don’t like them, [...]

Sylvia Plath Documentary, Part Two of Six

Ernest Hilbert Reads With Ben Downing, Adam Kirsch, and Rachel Wetzsteon

The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets, edited by David Yezzi, invites you to an evening of poetry
Seating is limited and the event is nearly sold out! Please RSVP to Callie Siskel: siskel@newcriterion.com or 212-247-6980
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Reception at 6:00
Remarks at 6:30
Readings by Ernest Hilbert, Ben Downing, Adam Kirsch, and Rachel Wetzsteon
The Grolier Club
47 East [...]

E-Verser Theresa Ortolani Invites You to a Wild Party in New York to Celebrate the Release of Her Extreme New Photobook “Endurance”

Click on the poster below to visit the event’s website!
Theresa Ortolani is a good friend, long-time E-Verser, and superb, high-energy photographer. So I urge you all: Stop by and dip in where the worlds of sleek fashionistas, gritty dirt bikers, New York literati, and cutting-edge photographers come together for an unforgettable evening. Click on the [...]

Check out the new Andrew Goodspeed poem over at LineBreak Magazine

Just click here to head over to read the poem from America’s ex-pat poet of darkness and hear the excellent recording by the very cool Ashley McHugh.

Kara’s Latest Creation: a Poster for Ernest Hilbert’s Reading with Mark Schorr at the Pierre Menard Gallery

Kara’s done it again! She’s made a lovely poster, limited to 12 copies signed by authors and promoters, for Ernest Hilbert’s reading at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, MA. Check it out!

“I WOULDN’T WORRY ABOUT IT . . . IT’S NOT A BIG COLLEGE TOWN”
LIMITED EDITION SIGNED POSTER ADVERTISING
ERNEST HILBERT AND MARK SCHORR’S READING
AT [...]

“Get daaawn with the Philly Saaaund!”: E-Verser Elizabeth Gold Publishing All Over the Place!

The lovely and of course talented writer Elizabeth Gold recently published three pieces you might like to read.
The first is from the very cool online mag The Rumpus. “Soul Pas de Deux” is an excerpt from her memoir, Philly Soul.
Now for even more Philly Soul on emusic.
And here is a Time Out New York review [...]

Remastered Head House Books Reading

My reading from Head House Books in April 2009, recorded by Juddith Redding, has been mastered by Dave Young at Widget Studios for Pub Can Records. You may listen to it on iTunes or by clicking here. It was a lovely evening and a very warm crowd, so I commend you to listen if you [...]

Two Hilbert Readings the Week of November 8th

Hey, E-Versers, stop by and say hi, have a beer, and enjoy some poetry if you’re in either of these areas.
Painted Bride Quarterly presents Ernest Hilbert and Lynn Levin
Tuesday November 10th, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Bubble House, 3404 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3404
Phone: 215.243.0804
www.thebubblehouse.com
FREE

The Boston Poetry Union presents Ernest Hilbert
Thursday, November 12th, 7PM
Pierre Menard Gallery
Harvard [...]

One more day to pre-order Ernest Hilbert’s new chapbook Aim Your Arrows at the Sun at a reduced rate!

Pre-order Aim Your Arrows at the Sun for $12 ($20 after official publication tomorrow). Write directly to editor Daniel Lin at daniel@loveamongtheruins.com. For more information about the press and the party, please visit their website.
You are invited to the launch party (free beer and wine!) at Melville House Books in DUMBO Brooklyn, Wednesday November 4th [...]

“Bringing Back the Sonnet” on Connecticut Public Radio

“Bringing Back the Sonnet”: Connecticut Public Radio Host Colin McEnroe interviews Humphrey Tonkin, Ravi Shankar, and Katy-Evans Bush. Ernest Hilbert merits several mentions.

“Does a notoriously grumpy poet believe in everlasting love?”: Jeremy Axelrod on Philip Larkin’s classic “An Arundel Tomb”

From the Poetry Foundation.
The last line of “An Arundel Tomb” is among the most quoted in all of Larkin: “What will survive of us is love.” Its popularity can seem ironic. Larkin is mainly known for the dry eloquence of his gloom, and for the sly precision of his phrasing. A line so keen on [...]

“The concern here seems to be with writing poetry, not playing the role of poet”: Alexander Nazaryan reviews the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets for The Faster Times

“It’s hard to believe, but poetry was once a dangerous enterprise: Plato suggested that in his Republic, poets would be banished because they were, at heart, rabble-rousers and dissimulators. What Plato couldn’t accomplish Stalin did, executing anyone who dared to cross the dictator with unflattering verse. But we, a more humane breed, would never think [...]

“Slow Burning Crimes” by East Hundred

“Slow Burning Crimes” from East Hundred on Vimeo.

ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ANNUAL TOLLUND® TRANSLATION PRIZE FOR POETRY

The Tollund Group Nordic Legal Language Services
Contest in Brief: The first annual Tollund Translation Prize for Poetry challenges translators to recreate the words of emerging English-language poets in the Nordic languages.
This contest is different from other poetry translation contests in that it is on a set subject. We choose the particular poems for translation (in [...]

“How pleasant to know Mr. Larkin” by David Yezzi

David Yezzi’s wry and charming short poem “How pleasant to know Mr. Larkin” is at least the third in a growing tradition of such poems, beginning with Edward Lear’s classic “How pleasant to know Mr.Lear!”, to which T. S. Eliot slyly replied with his own “How unpleasant to meet Mr. Eliot!” I supply both earlier [...]

A Poetry Manifesto Courtesy of Alfred Corn

From Alfred Corn’s weblog:
I’ll also use this occasion to announce a *n*e*w* *m*o*v*e*m*e*n*t* in poetry. And high time we had one. Postmodernism has held the stage for more than thirty years, which is an almost unheard-of longevity in the history of artistic trends. Meanwhile, the various “-isms” we’ve seen over the past century have begun [...]

“The best perk of being a celebrity is: How the hell would I know? Free drinks, I think”: Ernest Hilbert Interviewed by Daniel Nester for Best American Poetry Website

For today’s post on Best American Poetry’s website, Daniel Nester gave me an interview questionnaire originally given to Ashley Tisdale by Juliette, editor of Miss O and Friends.  Here’s a sample:
About my pets: lovely sleek ash-tortoiseshell Xaipe and big bruiser fat tabby cat (Wicked) Lester (Bangs), both rescues, both subjects of poems I’ve written, both [...]

Hannah Brooks-Motl crosses the pond of a Common Tongue

From the Contemporary Poetry Review:
What is the difference between British and American poetry—especially contemporary poetry—and why are they different? Because the two poetries are written in the same language, it seems to make more sense to ask this question of them than to ask, for example, what the differences between Italian and Spanish poetry are, [...]

“Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song”: T.S. Eliot beats out Rudyard Kipling as British Fave

“The rousing strains of Rudyard Kipling’s “If” might have catapulted him to a landslide victory in the vote for the nation’s favorite poem back in 1995, but the reading tastes of the UK appear to have taken a more modernist turn over the following 14 years with TS Eliot today named the nation’s favourite poet [...]

Gentlemen, Ladies, please select your wagers . . . Odds for the 2009 Nobel Price in Literature, courtesy of Ladbrokes

Selection      Odds
Amos Oz     3/1
Herta Muller     3/1
Joyce Carol Oates     5/1
Philip Roth     5/1
Thomas Pynchon     7/1
Adonis     9/1
Assia Djebar     9/1
Haruki Murakami     9/1
Mario Vargas Llosa     9/1
Thomas Transtromer     9/1
Claudio Magris     12/1
Don DeLillo     12/1
Ismail Kadare     14/1
Ko Un     14/1
Milan Kundera     14/1
A.B Yehoshua     16/1
Luis Goytisolo     16/1
Antonio [...]

Date Change for Hilbert’s Reading “Elephant is My Favorite Number”!

Please note that my reading in DUMBO Brooklyn has been moved from Thursday, November 5th TO Wednesday November 4th. Same time, same place.
LATR Editions is launching Heather Green’s No Omen and Ernest Hilbert’s Aim Your Arrows at the Sun with a reading and book signing. Lightful Press is celebrating the publication of poet Liz [...]

Listen to Ernest Hilbert on Joe Milford’s Radio Show

I appeared live on Joe Milford’s poetry radio show last night. It was great fun, and we wound up going for an hour and a half! It’s been archived, so you can hear it now or whenever you like. Click on the image below or here to listen to show. I read poems from three [...]