John Ashbery at Poets House

My last guest blog for Ploughshares: http://blog.pshares.org/2012/07/27/john-ashbery/#more-9499

Alicia Ostriker, Amy Lawless, and Rebecca Gayle Howell at the Perfect Sense Reading Series

My penultimate guest blog for Ploughshares: http://blog.pshares.org/2012/07/06/cornelia-st-cafe-and-the-perfect-sense-reading-series/#more-8518

Martin Espada on the History of Rebellion in Puerto Rican Poetry

http://blog.pshares.org/2012/06/22/martin-espada-on-colonialism-and-the-poetry-of-rebellion-in-puerto-rico/#more-7754

Poetry and Its Whores

My latest guest blog for Ploughshares un)covers the Poetry Society of New York's Poetry Brothel.

http://blog.pshares.org/2012/06/01/poetry-and-its-whores/

Patrick Rosal and Tracy K. Smith: A Talk at The New School

My second guest blog for Ploughshares chronicles a talk given in May by Rosal and Smith that was sponsored by Cave Canem:

http://blog.pshares.org/2012/05/11/poetry-hip-hop-and-academia-a-discussion-with-camille-rankine-patrick-rosal-and-tracy-k-smith/

On Ghassan Zagtan and the State Department

I'm blogging for Plougshares this spring and summer.  Find my first one for them at the link below:

http://blog.pshares.org/2012/04/27/the-death-of-poetry/#more-5898

Borges and Public Literati

I remember how even those unfamiliar with his poetry knew who Allen Ginsberg was. How he would appear in other than literary publications and on video. How the auditorium at the University of Pittsburgh overflowed with people for his reading in 1991.  How Ginsburg had security bring people up onto the stage with him rather than turn them away.  I remember John Updike on the networks.  Their presence in the media and during public appearances confirmed to me that poets and writers held a venerated and important place in American life.  Watching this interview with Borges on what would have been his 112th birthday, I find myself hungry for the presence of such literary elders not just in my private life but in public life.  Find myself wondering how the media, beyond Oprah perhaps, can ignore the great poets and writers of our day and why their views are not valued among the various pundits and talking heads of the day.

Thanks to Mariana Soto for the following interview with Borges from late in his life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo2Eo-G-1sE