In Philadelphia, Rosemary Cappello—since the 1970s—has edited magazines, organized readings, and published books by Philadelphia poets, helping the poetry scene to thrive there. When she sent me a copy of her book, Wonderful Disaster, I was moved by her memories that have become striking enjoyable […]
Category Archives: Books That Come My Way
Bamboo Pavilion: Chinese Poems and Paintings by Joanne Wang and Alfred Corn
… Bamboo Pavilion is a beautiful jewel of a book. Chinese poets like Du Fu and Li Bai are translated by Alfred Corn with paintings by the contemporary Chinese artist, Joanne Wang, the present and that past in a really pleasurable collaboration. I’ve scanned a […]
Timothy Liu reads from Let It Ride
… A year ago I got in touch with Timothy Liu and asked if I could record him reading from his new book, Let It Ride, which was coming out in September. Well, one thing led to another, and we never got around to doing […]
Jason Schneiderman reads from Hold Me Tight
… Jason Schneiderman’s new book, Hold Me Tight, has some striking violence on its cover yet is very comfortable to hold. It’s this oxymoron about the book that pleases me the most. Pleasing too is the fluid order of the poems, a past, present and […]
Janet Hamill reads from A Map of the Heavens
… In the early 1970s, poets began to memorize their poems so what was coming to the listener was coming from the poet, not from the page. Janet Hamill was one of the first to do this as much a seer as a poet in […]
Basil King reads from Disparate Beasts
… Basil King focuses on the details that sparkle and create the most important events in an artist’s life. His new book, Disparate Beasts, is the history of a thousand pages condensed through poetry into one. Although he began as a painter—and still is—Basil King […]
Tess Taylor reads from Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange
… On a Thursday I went to see Dorothea Lange’s “Words and Pictures” at MoMa, and on the following Monday, as luck would have it, I heard Tess Taylor read at KGB from her new book that the museum had commissioned her to write to […]
Val Vinokur reads from Isaac Babel, The Essential Fictions
… When I heard Val Vinokur read from Isaac Babel, The Essential Fictions it was an epiphany. I’d heard of Isaac Babel, but I’d never read him, and always associated him with Sholem Aleicham on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof. Listening to Val Vinokur […]
Susana H. Case reads from Dead Shark on the N Train
… Years ago a friend, Lynn McGee, said that she wanted me to meet a friend of hers, Susana Case, whom she thought was a wonderful poet, and not only that, but a favorite of hers. “You have to read her,” she insisted. When I […]
Collaborations with Greg Masters
… Something important arrived in the mail last week: an advanced copy of Collaborations, which is edited by Greg Masters, and will be released by the end of May. I came to New York City in 1979 around the time these collaborations were happening. They […]
Lonely Christopher reads from In a January Would
… Right before the coronavirus drove us all indoors without jobs or places to attend poetry readings, Lonely Christopher had a launch for his new book, In a January Would, at Torn Page in Chelsea. None of us knew that this would be the last […]
Trace Peterson Reads at Zinc Bar
… … I started to know Trace Peterson about two years ago when she was finishing up her PhD, but she was so busy that we hardly talked or were able to correspond or get anything done. What I wanted to do was to record […]
