If poetry make nothing happen, as W.H. Auden once wrote, it sometimes uncannily anticipates what will.
The Bard Died 410 Years Ago Today. His Poems Live On
Sometimes he rewrote them. See an example and decide which you prefer: the early or the later version.
THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is coming soon . . .
It Probes the Secret Prison History of American Music
Colin Asher, author of the critically acclaimed biography of Nelson Algren “Never a Lovely So Real,” now focuses on five emblematic figures — Huddle Ledbetter, Elmo Hope, Johnny Cash, Ike White, and Tupac Shakur — as he explores the influence of incarceration on blues artists, jazz musicians, country singers, rock’n’rollers, and hip-hop creators.
We Bloviate Therefore We Are
You have to go behind the billboards to understand what’s happening in America. So said the novelist Nelson Algren, who was as sharp a social critic as H.L. Mencken ever was. Seems to me that the British author A. Robert Lee would agree with Algren. But Lee has taken it upon himself to cite the billboards themselves as diagnostic proof.
Days of Judgment
Poems and Drawings That Speak for Themselves
New from Moloko Print — ‘Days of Judgment’ by Mark Terrill with drawings by Gerard Bellaart.
Looking Back at NYC with Nostalgia and Dismay
In a newly recorded video, three noted writers look back at their experience of New York City with nostalgic affection — and, it must be said, with considerable dismay — from their vantage points in Switzerland and Germany.
Paul Zelevansky’s Absurdist Tale of ‘Monkey & Man’
It began as a performance piece. That was a long time ago . . . 1985, to be precise, in Brooklyn. The author presented Individual stories as performances and installations. The texts also began appearing in little magazines.
Robert Nichols’s Indelible Railroad Poems Back in Print
Just received a masterly bilingual edition in English and German of “Slow Newsreel of Man Riding Train” by Robert Nichols. It is the latest in Stadtlichter Presse’s bilingual Heartbeats series devoted to American poets of the Beat generation.
THE BLACK SCHOONER
Amistad Slave Rebellion Retold in New Graphic Novel
Before Black History Month runs out, let’s note that David Lester has a new graphic novel in the works: THE BLACK SCHOONER. “It tells the true story of the 1839 uprising aboard the Amistad,” Lester says, and is one of a “growing number of titles depicting history from below.”
Peter Mathiessen Had Many Eagle-Eyed Identities
Among them were novelist, naturalist, fisherman, CIA spy.
Still in Memory: Carl Weissner, So Rudely Interrupted
Tonight marks the 14th anniversary of Carl Weissner’s departure. He left us unexpectedly in the late hours of Jan. 23, 2012 or in the hours before dawn on Jan. 24. His absence has not diminished among his friends, though the date of his death has grown more distant.
Author & Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America
For readers familiar with his work, it will come as no surprise that Swiss novelist Christoph Keller’s prose in English, an adopted language, has the idiomatic flare of a native speaker. Nor is it a surprise that much of his latest novel is again set in downtown Manhattan, where he once lived.
Cut Paste Print
A History of Political Photomontage in the 20th Century
This blogpost cannot adequately display the exhaustive content and brilliant design of “Couper, Coller, Imprimer,” the richly illustrated catalogue of an extraordinary photomontage exhibition at La Contemporaine in Nantes, France (running through March 14). Even so, it is hoped that this limited attempt evokes the broad historical spirit of the exhibition while offering an edited summary of the subject by the curators, Max Bonhomme and Aline Théret, in their own words.
Quoting William S. Burroughs
A Book Designer’s Take on Political Conditions
Have a look.
A Straightup Thanksgiving — It’s a Tradition
Our Thanksgiving team of William S. Burroughs and Norman O. Mustill has been a happy pairing since 2012. It still is. So here they are again, sweetened by Heathcote Williams’s words in a narration-cum-montage by Alan Cox. It’s all so delish.
PARTISANS
A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance
Just in over the transom: An eye-catching collection of wartime tales of armed resistance to fascism edited by the comics writer and activist Raymond Tyler and the radical historian Paul Buhle. It’s a great teaching tool for students and for anyone else who could use a gripping introduction to the subject.
Hollywood Goes Up Against the Trump Regime
Jane Fonda and other Hollywood stars are modeling their battle against the Trump regime’s “campaign to silence critics” on the Committee for the First Amendment, which was initially formed during the “Red Scare” of the 1940s. Here’s what happened the first time around.