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News Since the Most Recent Newsletter:
The last newsletter is here.

 

On this page:

  The Wider Range  

 

See a list of the contents for  all pages on Page 1 of News Since the Last Newsletter

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The Wider Range
    General poetry topics...

 

  American Life in Poetry is an initiative of Ted Kooser, the past U. S. Poet Laureate (2004-2006 Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress). The American Life in Poetry project—whose sole mission is to promote poetry—features a contemporary American poem and a short commentary by Ted Kooser each week. Read the most recent poem here.

The Poetry Foundation formed a partnership with the The Library of Congress to support the project.  Administrative support is provided by the English Department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where the offices of the American Life in Poetry project are located.  The American Life in Poetry web site has additional background information. We're pleased to have selected columns in our feature here, which we update regularly.

This column inspired us to start a new section at CowboyPoetry.com:  The Wider Range, which includes information about the wider world of poetry. 

[Photo of Ted Kooser by UNL Publications and Photography]

Updated 7/24

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 From the Poetry Foundation:

The Poetry Foundation is proud to announce that Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show is one of 5 shows nominated in the category of Outstanding Children's Program for a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award. Produced by HBO/HBO Family in association with the Poetry Foundation, Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show introduces audiences to timeless poetry through animation and song and features poems by Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Christina Rossetti, and Federico García Lorca.

"The Poetry Foundation is delighted by the nomination and the further recognition it brings to poetry's importance in our culture," said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation. "We are certain that young children—and their parents—who are introduced to the art form through this enchanting program will become lifelong readers of poetry."

Emmy winners will be announced during the 60th Creative Arts Awards on Saturday, September 13, in Los Angeles.

Featuring the voices of performers Andy Garcia, John Lithgow, Elizabeth Mitchell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Susan Sarandon, and Jeffrey Wright, Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show consists of approximately a dozen short segments presenting well-known poems—and some surprises—in a unique format. Between each segment, children—ranging in age from 4 to 9—offer commentary and muse on the meaning and mystery of poetry. An HBO/HBO Family original program, Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show was created in association with the Children's Poetry and Media Initiatives of the Poetry Foundation.

Posted 7/22

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  The Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, announced the appointment of Californian Kay Ryan as the Library’s 16th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2008-2009 on July 17, 2008. From the official media release:

Ryan will take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library’s annual literary series Oct. 16 with a reading of her work. She also will be a featured guest at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in the Poetry pavilion Sept. 27 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Ryan succeeds Charles Simic as Poet Laureate and joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including most recently Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.

Dr. Billington said that the Laureateship is uniformly awarded for the highest quality of poetry. "Kay Ryan is a distinctive and original voice within the rich variety of contemporary American poetry," Billington said. "She writes easily understandable short poems on improbable subjects. Within her compact compositions there are many surprises in rhyme and rhythm and in sly wit pointing to subtle wisdom."

Patricia Gray, coordinator of the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center, noted that although Ryan’s appointment as Laureate may disrupt her quiet life temporarily, her career path is likely to inspire poets everywhere who work independently, forgoing time-consuming career tracks and more remunerative positions so they can lead lives that nourish their writing.

Read the entire Library of Congress media release here, which includes more information about Kay Ryan, a sample of her poetry, and information about the Laureateship.

More information on the Poet Laureate and the Poetry and Literature Center can be found here at the Library of Congress web site. The site also includes a video of Kay Ryan reading at the Library of Congress in 2001 and a 2003 reading at the National Book Festival.

Posted 7/18

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 From the Poetry Foundation:

 

High School Student Shawntay Henry Wins $20,000 First Prize
in National Poetry Competition
Poetry Foundation Announces 2008 National Champion of Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest
 

CHICAGO — With a fan club including her family, friends, English teacher, poetry coach, and members of the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts, 16-year-old Shawntay Henry of the United States Virgin Islands captured the audience with her poetry recitations and was named the 2008 Poetry Out Loud National Champion. Along with her title, Henry, a 10th grade student at Charlotte Amalie High School, receives a $20,000 scholarship prize. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals were held last night at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC. Henry was among 12 finalists and 52 state champions from around the country who participated in the third annual national poetry recitation contest, sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and National Arts Endowment.

"Poetry was never something I thought I'd get involved with, but I realized I had a hidden talent," said Henry, who capped her winning performance with a thoughtful recitation of the poem "Frederick Douglass" by Robert E. Hayden. This was the first year that the U.S. Virgin Islands participated in the Poetry Out Loud program. Henry advanced to National Champion from a field of competition that included more than 1,500 high schools and 200,000 high school students around the country.

The second-place winner was Sophia Elena Soberon of Brookings-Harbor High School in Brookings, Oregon, who received a $10,000 scholarship prize. The Utah State Champion, Madison Niermeyer, of Skyline High School in Salt Lake City, received the third-place prize and a $5,000 scholarship.

The other 12 finalists included Elijah Orengo of Georgia; Sequoia Jelks of Indiana; Gabrielle Guarracino of Massachusetts; Charles White of Michigan; Allison Strong of New Jersey; Hannah JoBeth Roark of Oklahoma; Elsa Vande Vegte of South Dakota; BreAnna Jones of Washington State; and Carolyn Rose Garcia of West Virginia. Each of the top 12 finalists received a $1,000 scholarship prize and each of finalists' schools received a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books.

Special guest judges presided over the competition, including Garrison Keillor, host of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey; novelist and journalist Leslie Schwartz; Poetry Daily editor Don Selby; 2007 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Amanda Fernandez; and memoirist, activist, and poet Luis Rodriguez. Scott Simon, host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday, served as master of ceremonies.

On April 28, 52 high school students — Poetry Out Loud champions from every state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — competed in three semifinal rounds based on geographic region. Twelve students advanced to compete in the National Finals on April 29. Judges evaluated student performances on criteria including physical presence, articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, and accuracy. Students performed poems from the Poetry Out Loud print and online anthologies (www.poetryoutloud.org). The event was the culmination of a pyramid-structure competition that began last September among schools across the country.

The National Finals are the result of efforts by many partners. The NEA and the Poetry Foundation have contributed support for administration of the program, educational materials, and prizes for both the state and National Finals. Each State Arts Agency implemented the program in high schools in each state, often in collaboration with local arts organizations. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals were administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by building on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the popularity of rap music. Through Poetry Out Loud, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. Now in its third year of national competition, Poetry Out Loud has inspired thousands of high school students to discover classic and contemporary poetry. To find out how to get involved in the 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

About Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports the richness and diversity of the region's arts resources and promotes wider access to the art and artists of the region, nation and world. To learn more about MAAF, its programs and services, visit www.midatlanticarts.org.

Posted 5/1

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  From the Poetry Foundation:

GARY SNYDER WINS 2008 RUTH LILLY POETRY PRIZE
$100,000 lifetime achievement award is one of largest to poets

CHICAGO — Poet Gary Snyder is the winner of the 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Established in 1986 and presented annually by the Poetry Foundation, the award is one of the most prestigious given to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the nation's largest literary awards. Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee, made the announcement today. The prize will be presented at an evening ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Thursday, May 29.

In announcing the award, Wiman said: "Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself. His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation."

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Snyder began writing in the 1950s as a member—with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac—of the Beat movement. For most of the 1960s he lived in Japan and studied formally in a Zen monastery. Blending physical reality—precise observations of nature—with insight received primarily through the practice of Zen Buddhism, Snyder has explored a wide range of social and spiritual matters in both poetry and prose.

The judges issued the following statement in making the selection: "Gary Snyder is a true nature poet: there's no sentimentalism to his work, and he never uses the natural world simply to celebrate his own sensibility. A deeply learned and meditative artist, an impassioned ecologist, and a poet of great scope as well as intense focus, Snyder has written poems that we will be reading for as long as we've been reading Robert Frost."

"The selection of Gary Snyder as this year's winner of the Lilly Prize does honor to the tradition of excellence and importance that the prize has stood for since it was established over 20 years ago," said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation.

Snyder is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, essays, and translations. His poetry collections include Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, The Back Country, Regarding Wave, No Nature, Mountains and Rivers Without End, and Danger on Peaks. His essays are collected in Earth House Hold, The Real Work, A Place in Space, and Back on the Fire.

A committed environmental activist who has received the John Hay Award for Nature Writing, Snyder has also been recognized for his contributions to the theory and practice of Buddhism. His many honors include the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for Turtle Island, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Bollingen Prize, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Prize from Poetry, the Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Times, and the Shelley Memorial Award.

Snyder was born on May 8, 1930, in San Francisco. He is professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Davis, and lives in northern California.

Judges for the 2008 prize were poets Eavan Boland, Sandra M. Gilbert, and Christian Wiman.
 

Gary Snyder's work is included in the Dry Crik Review.

Posted 4/30

 

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 From the Poetry Foundation:

  NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS AND THE POETRY FOUNDATION
ANNOUNCE THE 2008 NATIONAL FINALS OF
POETRY OUT LOUD: NATIONAL RECITATION CONTEST
Radio personality Garrison Keillor among judges of recitation competition in Washington, DC

Washington, DC — For the third year, students from across the country are convening in Washington, DC for the chance to win a $20,000 scholarship prize based on their superior ability — not to shoot hoops or hit home runs — but to recite poetry. Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance, is the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation. On April 28 and 29, 52 high school students from every state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands will gather at George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC, to match their skills. These students are among more than 150,000 students nationwide who took part in this year's contest at the classroom level, progressing through school and state contests en route to becoming their state's champion. Special guest judges at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals are radio personality and novelist Garrison Keillor, Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, novelist and journalist Leslie Schwartz, Poetry Daily editor Don Selby, 2007 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Amanda Fernandez, and memoirist, activist, and poet Luis Rodriguez. Scott Simon of National Public Radio returns to serve as master of ceremonies.

"Through Poetry Out Loud, thousands of students have discovered the rewards of memorizing a favorite poem and the thrill of connecting with an audience," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "This experience not only teaches them about literature, it also builds self-assurance and the practical skills that students will use every day in the workplace and in the community."

Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by building on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the popularity of rap music. Through Poetry Out Loud, students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. The contest also seeks to address decreasing reading rates among young people, as cited in a recent NEA study To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence. Now in its third year of national competition, Poetry Out Loud has inspired hundreds of thousands of high school students to discover classic and contemporary poetry.

"To learn a great poem by heart is to make a friend for life," said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation. "The national recitation program brings fresh energy to an ancient art form by returning it to the classrooms of America."

***

The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will take place on April 28 and 29 during the final days of National Poetry Month. On April 28, students grouped in three geographic regions will compete in semifinal competitions. Twelve students (four from each region) will advance to compete in the National Finals on April 29. Judges will evaluate each student performance on criteria including physical presence, articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, and accuracy. Students choose three poems to recite from the Poetry Out Loud print and online anthologies (www.poetryoutloud.org). Some of the poems that have helped bring state winners to the National Finals are "The Meaning of the Shovel" by Mart’n Espada, and "Time Does Not Bring Relief: You All Have Lied" by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Poetry Out Loud Partnerships
The National Finals are the culmination of efforts by many partners. As national partners, the NEA and the Poetry Foundation have contributed support for administration of the program, educational materials, and prizes for both the state and national finals. State Arts Agencies implemented the program in high schools in each state and organized state competitions, often in collaboration with local arts organizations. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will be administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Poetry Out Loud Educational Materials
The NEA and the Poetry Foundation provided free, standards-based curriculum materials for use by participating schools. These materials include print and online poetry anthologies containing more than 500 classic and contemporary poems, a teacher's guide, and a CD about the art of recitation featuring well-known actors and writers such as Anthony Hopkins, James Earl Jones, Alyssa Milano, and N. Scott Momaday. Schools that are not part of the official Poetry Out Loud competition are welcome to conduct their own contests using the online resources at www.poetryoutloud.org.

Contests and Prizes
Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. Between September 2007 and February 2008, teachers at schools across the country introduced students to the poems and educational resources, later conducting classroom and schoolwide competitions. State contests were held in February and March; those champions advance to the National Finals in Washington, DC. 2008 marks expansion for Poetry Out Loud on several fronts. This year, the U.S. Virgin Islands has joined the nationwide competition. State programs across the country have expanded geographically, reaching new schools and students. Since last year's contest, the number of schools in the official contest has increased by 30 percent to more than 1,500 schools in 2008. An estimated 150,000 students have participated in the 2007-2008 Poetry Out Loud competition.

The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will award a total of $50,000 in scholarship prizes and school stipends for the purchase of poetry books. Prizes include $20,000 for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion, and $10,000 and $5,000 for the second- and third-place finalists. Each state-level final has awarded $1,000 in cash prizes to the champion, runner up, and their schools. In total, Poetry Out Loud will award more than $100,000 to state- and national-level winners.

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National Finals at the Lisner Auditorium
The 52 champions will gather at the Poetry Out Loud semifinals on Monday, April 28, from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm at the Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, 730 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC. Twelve finalists will advance to the National Finals, also held at the Lisner on Tuesday, April 29, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm. Both events are free and open to the public, no tickets or reservations are required. For more information on the competitions, call 202-682-5772.

About Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports the richness and diversity of the region's arts resources and promotes wider access to the art and artists of the region, nation and world. To learn more about MAAF, its programs and services, visit www.midatlanticarts.org.

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
 

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  From the Poetry Foundation:

 

POETRY EVERYWHERE
New series of poetry films premieres online, on public television, and on transit systems

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, in collaboration with WGBH/Boston and docUWM at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is pleased to announce the launch of Poetry Everywhere, a series of 32 short poetry films premiering online throughout National Poetry Month at a new PBS website, www.pbs.org/poetry, on the Poetry Foundation's website, www.poetryfoundation.org, and on Transit TV, a network that runs programming on LCD screens in public transportation systems in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Orlando, and San Diego. Local PBS stations will also be airing the poetry films at unexpected moments during their broadcast schedules.

An innovative effort to introduce new audiences to a wide selection of great contemporary and classic poetry, the Poetry Everywhere films are intended to add a moment of introspection, wonder—even revelation—to the life of a harried commuter, a television viewer, online surfer, or a young child who has yet to encounter poetry. Using a variety of production approaches, the project features films of poets reading their own work, animated interpretations of much-loved poems, and celebrities reading personal favorites.

Seventeen of the Poetry Everywhere films, produced by WGBH/Boston and David Grubin Productions in association with the Poetry Foundation, begin airing April 1 on television and online. The films feature the work of acclaimed poets such as Adrienne Rich, current U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic, Sharon Olds, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Frost, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, and Seamus Heaney. The series also includes actress Mary Louise Parker reading a poem by Mark Strand, playwright Tony Kushner reading Walt Whitman, and musician Wynton Marsalis reading W.B. Yeats.

In addition, 15 animated Poetry Everywhere films created by students working with docUWM, a documentary media center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the university's creative writing program, in association with the Poetry Foundation, will debut online and on Transit TV throughout the coming months. Aiming to focus a new generation of filmmakers on poetry as subject matter, the project encouraged film students to read widely from the canon of contemporary poetry and, working closely with poets and scholars, effectively translate poetry to the screen using an array of film and animation techniques. The docUWM films feature a wide range of contemporary poems and poets, including Lucille Clifton's "mulberry fields," Robert Creeley's "The Language," and Lyn Hejinian's "Eleven Eyes." The student portion of the project was supervised by Liam Callanan, a creative writing professor at the UW-Milwaukee School of Letters and Science, and Brad Lichtenstein, a Peck School of the Arts film instructor.

Visitors to Poetry Everywhere on the PBS website will find links to the Poetry Foundation's website, www.poetryfoundation.org, that enable them to read the text of the featured poems, as well as biographies and more work by the poets, and to further explore poetry as a whole. In addition, selected poems will be featured in a special multimedia collection on the Teachers' Domain website, www.teachersdomain.org, which will include video, background essays, strategies for teaching the poems, and sample lesson plans.

A full list of poems included in the Poetry Everywhere series is below. For additional information on the program and partners, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

***

About docUWM
docUWM is a documentary media center based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts' Film Department that produces and presents documentary and media work of all kinds.

About David Grubin Productions
David Grubin Productions has produced over 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art, from poetry to science. As a producer, writer, and director, David Grubin has won every major award in his field, including two duPont-Columbia awards, three Peabodys, and nine Emmys. Widely acclaimed for his biographies of American presidents, Grubin most recently produced The Jewish Americans, a six-hour documentary following 350 years of Jewish American history, for PBS. Additional information is available at www.grubin.com.

About WGBH/Boston
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of fully one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup, along with some of public television's best-known lifestyle shows and children's programs and many public radio favorites. WGBH is a pioneer in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards, and even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information, visit www.wgbh.org.

About Transit TV
Transit TV's network of nearly 9000 television screens can be seen on nearly 4000 transit vehicles by 11 million weekly viewers, creating one of the largest digital out-of-home networks in North America and the largest specifically targeting transit riders. Transit TV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation, Toronto, Canada. Torstar Corporation is a broadly based media company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TS.B).

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

***
 

Poetry Everywhere Poem List
1. Coleman Barks - selections from Rumi (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
2. Lucille Clifton - "won't you celebrate with me" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
3. Billy Collins - "The Lanyard" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
4. Emily Dickinson - "I started early ..." (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
5. Robert Frost - "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
6. Robert Hass - Issa Haikus (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
7. Seamus Heaney - "Black-Berry Picking" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
8. Marie Howe - "The Gate" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
9. Yusef Komunyakaa - "Facing It" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
10. Stanley Kunitz - "Touch Me" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
11. Philip Levine - "Belle Isle, 1949" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
12. Sharon Olds - "I Go Back to May, 1937" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
13. Adrienne Rich - "What Kind of Times Are These" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
14. Charles Simic - "Stone" (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
15. Mark Strand - "Lines for Winter" (read by Mary Louise Parker) (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
16. Walt Whitman - excerpt from "A Passage to India" (read by Tony Kushner) (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
17. W.B. Yeats - "The Wild Old Wicked Man" (read by Wynton Marsalis) (WGBH/David Grubin Productions)
18. Agha Shahid Ali - "Snowmen" (docUWM)
19. John Ashbery - "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" (docUWM)
20. Maxine Chernoff - "Lost and Found" (docUWM)
21. Lucille Clifton - "mulberry fields" (docUWM)
22. Robert Creeley - "The Language" (docUWM)
23. Kwame Dawes - "Tornado Child" (docUWM)
24. Rhina Espaillat - "Weighing In" (docUWM)
25. Maurice Kilwein Guevara - "Doña Josefina Counsels Doña Concepción Before Entering Sears" (docUWM)
26. Matthea Harvey - "Shiver & You Have Weather" (docUWM)
27. Robert Hayden - "Those Winter Sundays" (docUWM)
28. Lyn Hejinian - "Eleven Eyes" (docUWM)
29. Jane Hirshfield - "The Heat of Autumn" (docUWM)
30. John Koethe - "Chester" (docUWM)
31. Wislawa Szymborska - "Advertisement" (docUWM)
32. Richard Wilbur - "Some Words Inside of Words" (docUWM

Posted 3/31

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  From the Poetry Foundation:

Poetry Foundation Collaborates with HBO on
Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show
Latest installment of the Emmy-winning series debuts April 12
 

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, in collaboration with HBO, is pleased to announce the premiere of Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show, a television special for kids and their families about poetry. The latest installment of HBO's acclaimed Classical Baby series transports viewers into the world of literary arts, planting the seeds for a new generation to become lifelong lovers of poetry. Featuring classic poems by some of the world's greatest poets—including William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Christina Rossetti, and Federico García Lorca—the program premieres on Saturday, April 12, at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, exclusively on HBO.

"We're certain that young children—and their parents—who are introduced to poetry via this enchanting program will be captivated by the beauty and wonder of the art form," said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation. "Our research confirms that a positive experience with poetry early in life is the best way to create a lifelong reader of poetry."

An HBO original program produced in association with the Poetry Foundation, Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show introduces audiences to timeless poetry through animation and song. Featuring the voices of performers Andy Garcia, John Lithgow, Elizabeth Mitchell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Susan Sarandon, and Jeffrey Wright, and poets Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, and William Carlos Williams, Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show consists of approximately a dozen short segments presenting well-known poems—and some surprises—in a delightful format. Between each segment, children—ranging in age from 4 to 9—offer commentary and muse on the meaning and mystery of poetry.

Poems featured in the program include the following:

• "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost; read by Susan Sarandon

• "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson; sung by Beverly Gile and Frances Archer

• "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams; recited by Finn, age 7

• "Grassy Grass Grass" by Woody Guthrie; performed by Elizabeth Mitchell

• "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear; read by John Lithgow

• "Sonnet XVIII" by William Shakespeare; read by Jeffrey Wright

• "Mariposa" by Federico García Lorca; recited by Andy Garcia in Spanish with English subtitles

• "This Is Just to Say," written and read by William Carlos Williams

• "April Rain Song," written and read by Langston Hughes

• "A Very Valentine," written and read by Gertrude Stein

• "Who Has Seen the Wind?" by Christina Rossetti; read by child Maria Molloy

• "How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; read by Gwyneth Paltrow

About HBO's Classical Baby Designed to introduce the whole family to masterpieces of classical music, painting, dance, and now poetry, the Emmy and Peabody award-winning Classical Baby series is the brainchild of director-producer Amy Schatz. On April 17, HBO Family and HBO Video will release Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show on DVD.

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.
 

Posted 3/18

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