Throughout the month of February, we will be celebrating Black History Month. Today’s Throwback Thursday post is a poem by Evie Shockley: “ode to my blackness,” from her collection the new black. Wesleyan University Press has published the works of many notable African American and Caribbean poets. Some recent books include Testimony, by Yusef Komunyakaa, The Little…
Today’s Throwback Thursday poem is Joseph Ceravolo’s “Night Wanderer” from Collected Poems. In his lifetime, Ceravolo published six books. The publication of Collected Poems made these six books available again, and also includes a substantial amount of work that has never been in print. Collected Poems offers the first full portrait of Ceravolo’s aesthetic trajectory, bringing…
January 19th will mark the annual celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This week’s Throwback Thursday post is dedicated to Dr. King, his time spent in Connecticut (both as an unknown student and as a national leader), and the reaction of Hartford residents to his tragic assassination. Dr. Martin Luther King,…
Today’s Throwback Thursday poem is Amy Newman’s “To come to rest; strike bottom; land: The world first fell from the firmament,” from the book Fall. In this collection of poems, Newman draws upon 72 definitions of the word “fall,” each definition serving as a poem’s title. To come to rest; strike bottom; land: The world first…
This week’s Throwback Thursday post revisits the work of Rockwell Kent (1882–1971). Kent was one of America’s most celebrated graphic artists. Although he is best known for his illustrations to accompany The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and Moby Dick, his artwork also appeared widely in popular media. Kent was also a travel writer. His illustrated books of adventure…
This week’s throwback Thursday post is dedicated to director Mel Brooks! He is one of many directors interviewed in The Director Within: Storytellers of Stage and Screen by Rose Eichenbaum. The photograph of Brooks, below, is one of many images from the book. To honor Brooks and his ongoing ability to make us laugh long…
Today’s Throwback Thursday poem is “Democracy,” from the book Tug, which was written by Stephen Todd Booker, a prisoner on Florida’s death row. DEMOCRACY A dandelion seed of a woman, She, the daughter hated by her own Mother and sisters for having two sons— Because perhaps too she wasn’t so alone As…
Today’ Throwback Thursday selection is an excerpt from Vicente Huidobro’s avant-garde classic Altazor. Considered untranslatable until the appearance of Eliot Weinberger’s celebrated translation in 1988, Altazor appeared again in Wesleyan’s 2004 revised translation with an expanded introduction. In the introduction, Weinberger explains the origins of the work: “Alto, high; azor, hawk. Altazor, a poem in seven cantos,…
In honor of #UPWeek, AAUP’s Blog Tour continues, with the theme of Throwback Thursday. Other participating presses are Harvard University Press, MIT Press, Temple University Press, University of Toronto Press, and University of Washington Press. Today’s Throwback Thursday selection is “Flowers of the Foothills & Mountain Valleys” from Alice Notley’s 2006 collection Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005. She was…
This week’s Throwback Thursday selection is David Ignatow’s “Business” from Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934-1994 (1995). . . Business There is no money in breathing. What a shame I can’t peddle my breath for something else—like what? I wish I knew but surely besides keeping me alive breathing doesn’t give enough of a return. .…
