Quote of the Day:

If both chairs are dirty, to sit between them is the best place for a poet.

Thanks Yevtushenko

Reginald Shepherd talks about how he started his accidental blog. He says some interesting things in the piece, but one thing I’d like to quote is this:

Google’s Blogger software requires one to set up an account in order to leave a comment, but instead of taking me to the comment page once I had done so, the program sent me to a page to set up my own blog.

This is precisely why I don’t like Blogger. It’s incredibly annoying to have to sign in to comment in the first place. Secondly, when I do sign in then I’d like to be taken to the place where I intended to go and not off somewhere else. Then again, if that hadn’t happened to Reginald Shepherd, we’d have one less literary blog right now.

Excellent reading: Online Vs. Print Publishing

Just for the record, my personal preference is online. I don’t like to wait for a year from a publisher who doesn’t like simultaneous submissions and won’t respond to queries or send acceptance notices. I know publishers are busy. So are writers.

That said, I like publishing in print as well. There’s just something about seeing that by line.

Thanks to Ron Silliman for providing the above links.

A Leaves of Grass-like composition.

“Howl,” the poem that made Allen Ginsberg and City Lights bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti famous, was recorded one month earlier than that event at Reed College.

Poet wins $100,000 award.

Oh, are you entering the contest?