Poetry & Poets in Rags

Rus Bowden · at 5:21 PM

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

We begin this week with the "amnesty" or commutation of sentences of some of the writers who have been held these past years in various prisons within Burma. The news agencies have done a great job identifying important spokespeople to put this action into perspective for us. In the first of three lead articles, we hear from Win Tin, a poet and activist who spent 19 years in prison himself. In the second, we hear from Hla Soe, a poet and activist who was just released. In a third article, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance issues an alert, looking at the numbers. All three of these articles discuss those who did not get released. For instance, even though Hla Soe is listed as a poet who has been released, at least two poets have not: Min Han, and Nyi Nyi Tun (a.k.a. Mee Doke).

Our second story is really part of the first, yet significantly different. A fourth poet, famous Burmese comedian Zarganar has been released as well. Even the guards were sharing his jokes.

There is so much more to follow, dozens of terrific articles in a busy week for poetry around the world. I'll leave the rest to your discovery.

Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

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Rus Bowden · at 3:42 PM

were included in the 6,359 prisoners to be released starting on October 12. The government has provided no official figures of the number of persons released. The amnesty was granted after approval by the National Defence and Security Council.

Win Tin said he was he was also disappointed the meetings between Aung San Suu Kyi and government representative and Labour Minister Aung Kyi, who have met three times. Amnesty was an important matter discussed in the meetings, he said.

from Mizzima: Political prisoner amnesty not enough: Win Tin
then Irrawaddy: Women Behind Bars
then Mizzima: Released political prisoner gathered information about Depayin Massacre
then SEAPA Alert: Burma released three writers among thousands of prisoners, hundreds more still in jail

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Rus Bowden · at 3:42 PM

are Zarganar fans. They love him. They love his work. In fact they tell his jokes to their friends after work," said his friend Htein Lin, quoted on the Free Zarganar campaign website.

Bald and energetic, with a wry comic style that used word play to skirt the country's strict censorship laws, Zarganar built his career satirising the military leaders of the country also known as Burma.

"Burmese people love to laugh. If I can't speak, jokes will still spread. People will make them up themselves," the Free Zarganar site quotes him as saying.

from AsiaOne: Myanmar satirist fought junta with jokes

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Rus Bowden · at 3:41 PM

the event organizer, San Francisco poet and publisher Michael Rothenberg, mentioned that he'd begun hearing from poets who would not be participating. "Imagine," he said. "We're kicking around all these possibilities and there are place where poets can't do anything public at all. They'd be arrested--or worse."

My brain flashed, as one hopes it will do at moments such as these. "What if we stand outside the embassies of some of those countries and read the silenced poets' poems so they can be part of 100 Thousand Poets for Change too?"

from Foreign Policy in Focus: Poets Stand Up

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Rus Bowden · at 3:39 PM

in tune with the artistic movement in Chile. The revival of a culture that modifies to survive, adapting new forms of expression which are proposing a cultural and political reflection. A vanguard expression of art which has questioned its origin and now identifies itself as Mapuche. This state of culture should not propose a contemporary form of identification before a culture of domination. Therefore, it is a culture which is in constant motion. That's Mapurbe--a poetic concept of identity and part of the people's contemporary heritage.

from Upside Down World: 'A Poetic Concept of Identity': An Interview with Mapuche Poet David Aniñir Guilitraro

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Rus Bowden · at 3:39 PM

threatened here three times for writing a pro-Jewish poem--including having a Star of David carved into his back--has stirred the Internet and raised questions about the investigation.

Federal authorities say they cannot prove or disprove it happened.

Alaa Alsaegh, 41, an immigrant from Iraq, said through an interpreter last week that he is afraid to leave his St. Louis home and disappointed with law enforcement.

"I'm going to die, and these people aren't doing anything," he complained.

from St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ex-Iraqi says pro-Jewish poem prompted attack

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Rus Bowden · at 3:38 PM

piece over and over in my mind. I don't agree with all of Stephens's contentions--he finds Joseph [Brodsky]'s poetry "too formal, too academic, too patrician." Academic? J.B. was an auto-didact who dropped out of school at 15, a Leningrad street fighter who was roughed up by the KGB. And I don't necessarily agree with this argument . . . at least I'm not sure I do:

"Isn't that always the case with a good personal essay? It is the voice that seduces us, not the content; it is the rhythm of the prose that draws us in, not the thoughts necessarily."

from The Book Haven: M.G. Stephens on Brodsky: "It is the voice that seduces us"

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Rus Bowden · at 3:37 PM

in Massachusetts around 1670, and there the family remained until William Greenleaf Eliot, Eliot's grandfather, moved to St. Louis to establish the first Unitarian church west of the Mississippi. "This scepticism," Eliot went on, "is a product, or a cause, or a concomitant, of Unitarianism." Wherever someone infected with the Eliot Way stepped, "the ground did not simply give way, it flew into particles." Such people "want to do something great," said Eliot, but "they are predestined failures."

from The Nation: Visions and Revisions: On T.S. Eliot

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Rus Bowden · at 3:37 PM

did not understand her lectures. Shortly into her tour, psychiatrists speculated that Stein suffered from palilalia, a speech disorder that causes patients to stutter over words or phrases. "Whether it was Picasso or Matisse or Van Gogh, people said that Modernism [a movement that Stein was very much a part of] was the art of the insane," says Corn. "It is a very common reductionism that you find running throughout modern arts and letters." But talk of the putative diagnosis quickly fizzled.

Stein engaged her audience with her personality and the musicality of her language. "Even if people couldn't follow her, she was so earnest and sincere," says [Wanda M.] Corn. "People loved listening to her," especially during her more candid question-and- answer sessions. According to Corn, Americans "welcomed home the prodigal daughter." Or grandmother--the 60-year-old was charming.

from The Smithsonian Magazine: When Gertrude Stein Toured America

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Rus Bowden · at 3:36 PM

in "Silent Disco": "The look on her face is filling the room./Someone else would describe it as joyful,/only to you it is space she is taking/and you will never have seen her so clearly,/so within, she forgets herself as seen./She is pure direction, she is line and ring." In both poems "you" is something more than the familiar demotic replacement for "one": it is the observer, not the observed, who is incomplete.

from The Guardian: The Casual Perfect by Lavinia Greenlaw--review

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Rus Bowden · at 3:35 PM

for his inaugural Monday night gig as the poet laureate of the United States.

"I bought a suit," he said. "It almost fits."

The 83-year-old Levine remains comfortable in his own skin, whatever epaulets are added. His former students at California State University, Fresno, still know him as Phil. He answers his own phone; he sets strangers at ease.

This poet laureate business? It's already a kick, though it's only just begun.

"I'm loving it," Levine said. "By the time I get used to it, it'll probably be over."

from Fresno Bee: Levine formally begins role as poet laureate

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Rus Bowden · at 3:34 PM

which debuted in April, has begun making available a small but significant portion of the many early audio recordings from its collection. This stuff is rare, and incredibly valuable, and incredibly interesting. The plan is for new audio files to be added incrementally as recordings from the 1950s onward are prepared and uploaded to the web. And, beginning in Spring 2012, video recordings will be added from the Poetry Center's extensive collection of early original video, collecting works from 1973 forward.

One of the audio recordings included in this first batch of files is that of Philip Levine. It is a six poem, nearly 14 minute recording dating from November 24, 1958. In it, one can hear the muscular Whitman-esque line which shaped Levine's verse, and what's a little surprising, a sly humor is also present--the audience laughs on more than one occasion.

from San Francisco Chronicle: The voice of the poet

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Rus Bowden · at 3:20 PM

in 1966. He became a Catholic in deference to the marriage — he retains a degree of faith — and, over the years, grew ever more sympathetic to the plight of the Poles in the 20th century. He saw, above all, that the western narrative of the second world war tended to devalue the monumental suffering of the east. This landed him in a famous academic dispute in the 1980s, when he was offered a job at Stanford University, in California, only to have it withdrawn when it was suggested that his obsession with the sufferings of the east was minimising the Holocaust. Ugly charges of anti-semitism were made.

“I ran into the buffers at Stanford. Essentially, I was fired before I had been appointed because they got together and decided my history of Poland didn’t say what they wanted. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it, it just didn’t tell the story they wanted.”

from Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: Vanished Kingdoms

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Rus Bowden · at 3:20 PM

in downtown Portland was worried about what they were wearing as "Think Out Loud" got ready for a live broadcast. This was the first time the National Book Award announcement has been made in the Northwest, and the first time it has been carried live on the radio. It also was streamed live on video, and there was a flurry on Twitter as each book went up on the wall.

Portland is well-known nationally as a book town, a reputation that helped bring the National Book Award announcement here.

from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: National Book Award finalists: The Oscars of the book world come to Portland

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Rus Bowden · at 3:19 PM

that also has the neat effect of moving the debate on from the contentious territory of the SF/litfic turfwar into that of value-neutral literary theory. As Miéville says, there is nothing inherently superior about recognition or estrangement, but given that the literature which the Booker traditionally rewards tends to be of the "ah, yes!" variety rather than what we might term the "oh, my" sort, does it not seem reasonable that we give long-overdue space to the latter?

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: What the Booker prize really excludes

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Rus Bowden · at 3:18 PM

has hit out at this year's judges of the Man Booker prize for creating what he calls a "false divide" between highbrow literature and accessible books.

The judges' focus on "readability" has provoked strong criticism from Motion, a trustee of the prize and former chair of judges, who said it "opens up a completely false divide between what is high end and what is readable, as if they are somehow in opposition to one other, which is patently not true".

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Booker prize divides quality from readability, says Andrew Motion

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Like his books, [Terry] Pratchett "seems to have become more himself as the years have gone on," [Neil] Gaiman says. They have been friends for almost 30 years. "I like the white-bearded incarnation. If we had a proper old-fashioned queen she would undoubtedly have Terry as her advisor, and then only the right people would have their heads cut off . . . He's funny, generous, tetchy, very moved by a sense of fairness. He would have been a good master criminal I think."

Snuff is the third novel Pratchett has written using voice-recognition technology rather than a keyboard: he is no longer able to touch type, although he can prod words out letter by letter.

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: A life in writing: Terry Pratchett

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Rus Bowden · at 3:18 PM

as the speaker continues his drama. God begins to walk on the earth with the sun "on his right hand/And the moon on his left." And the "stars were clustered about his head." As God walked on the earth, His feet "hollowed the valleys out/And bulged the mountains up." Genesis more vaguely reveals God's creation process than this speaker, who imaginatively fills in the gaps as he creates his own creation myth.

In Genesis, God separates the heavens from the earth. This speaker has God spitting out the "seven seas" and after clapping His hands, the thunder begins and rain comes down, "cooling waters came down."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: James Weldon Johnson's The Creation

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Rus Bowden · at 3:17 PM

lesser-known authors, the poetry panel selected some of the biggest names in the field, including the 82-year-old [Adrienne] Rich ("Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010"), Carl Phillips ("Double Shadow") and Yusef Komunyakaa ("The Chameleon Couch"). The other finalists were Nikky Finney's "Head Off & Split" and Bruce Smith's "Devotions."

from Hillel Italie: Associated Press: Adrienne Rich among National Book Award finalists

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[Lauren] Myracle's "Shine" was on the original list of five finalists announced last Wednesday for the young people's literature category. But the National Book Foundation, which sponsors the prizes, cited a "miscommunication" with the judges and quickly said that her book had been confused with Franny Billingsley's "Chime." (To avoid advanced word leaking on the Internet, judges inform the foundation by telephone of their choices).

So Myracle was out.

But within a couple of hours, the foundation changed its mind again and welcomed "Shine" back to make six nominees.

from Hillel Italie: Associated Press: Book award's mistaken nominee, 'Shine,' withdraws

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Rus Bowden · at 3:16 PM

by Joyce Sutphen

I spend part of my childhood waiting

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Bookmobile by Joyce Sutphen

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Dream--
by Elizabeth Bishop

I see a postman everywhere

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Dream--by Elizabeth Bishop

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From Out the Cave
by Joyce Sutphen

When you have been

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: From Out the Cave by Joyce Sutphen

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If Life Were Like Touch Football
by Julie Cadwallader-Staub

Driving north on Route 2A

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: If Life Were Like Touch Football by Julie Cadwallader-Staub

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Problem
by George Bilgere

Jerry is at his usual table this morning

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Problem by George Bilgere

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When the Vacation is Over for Good
by Mark Strand

It will be strange

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: When the Vacation is Over for Good by Mark Strand

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You shall above all things be glad and young . . .
by E. E. Cummings

you shall above all things be glad and young

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: You shall above all things be glad and young . . . by E. E. Cummings

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Rus Bowden · at 3:15 PM

news of the death of a family member or friend, and perhaps have reflected on lost opportunities. Here's a fine poem by J. T. Ledbetter, who lives in California but grew up on the Great Plains.

Crossing Shoal Creek

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 343

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Rus Bowden · at 3:14 PM

By Kenneth Rosen

I saw the last lamp-lighters! Patrolling

from Wesley McNair: The Portland Press Herald: Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry

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Rus Bowden · at 2:56 PM

Chinese artist and social critic Ai Weiwei the "most powerful" world artist, sparking a barbed response from Beijing.

Ai, who is still under considerable restrictions at his Beijing home following his release from 81 days in detention in June, claimed the top spot on ArtReview's 10th annual "Power 100" list on Thursday.

Ai's detention drew criticism from the United States, Australia, Britain, France, and Germany, as well as from Amnesty International and other international rights groups.

from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Ai Weiwei Tops Power Poll

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The paper reported that the Chinese authorities were preparing to release Liu [Xiaobo] at the end of the year, after serving just over a year of his 11-year prison term for subversion.

Liu's behavior while in prison had been "exemplary," and Chinese leaders were hoping to show their liberal-mindedness ahead of the 18th Party Congress next year, when the ruling Communist Party will select a new generation of leaders, the report said.

Asked about his brother's condition on a rare family visit to his prison in northeastern China last month, Liu Xiaoxuan declined to comment further.

from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Family Unaware of Liu Release

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Rus Bowden · at 2:55 PM

inside my imagination that I once wrote a book about a boy who is stuck in a museum at night and finds that the exhibits come alive. If this sounds rather like the plot of a Hollywood film, then the coincidence struck me, too, particularly as my book appeared some 10 years before the film came out! In mine, the Roman statues, a skeleton, a stuffed tiger, Elvis Presley and a Victorian factory all come to life and the boy is nearly captured by the Victorian owners of the museum and put in a glass case.

from Michael Rosen: The Telegraph: The Family Friendly Museum Award

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Rus Bowden · at 2:55 PM

have said they'd like to see a discussion of Roddy Lumsden's poetry, and PotW's own MeltonMowbray posted a request earlier this year. So for this week's poem, I've chosen one of my favourites from Lumsden's latest collection, Terrific Melancholy (recommended if you haven't already got a copy). I hope aficiandos and new readers alike will enjoy the elegiac virtuosity of "Square One."

Panning shots of the razzmatazz of contemporary London begin with an unnaturally motionless River Thames, which contrasts with the surrounding fluidity of endless construction and self-invention.

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Square One by Roddy Lumsden

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Rus Bowden · at 2:54 PM

"Linens," a poem by Kay Ryan, with a 2007 article from Science Times, "Do You Believe in Magic?"

from Katherine Schulten: The New York Times: Poetry Pairing: 'Charms That Forestall Harm'

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Rus Bowden · at 2:50 PM

In a Hard Wind

A pheasant sprints

from The Christian Science Monitor: In a Hard Wind

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Rus Bowden · at 2:50 PM

by Danielle Chapman

For E. & F.

Oh child

from The Chronicle Review: Monday's Poem: 'Of Beauties,' by Danielle Chapman

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Rus Bowden · at 2:49 PM

By Kyi May Kaung

from Foreign Policy in Focus: War on Roaches

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Rus Bowden · at 2:48 PM

we feature the work of Robert Sward who has taught at Cornell University, the Iowa Writers' Workshop and UC Santa Cruz. A Guggenheim Fellow, he was chosen by Lucile Clifton to receive a Villa Montalvo Literary Arts Award. His more than 20 books include: "Four Incarnations" (Coffee House Press), "Rosicrucian in the Basement," "The Collected Poems," and "God is in the Cracks" (Black Moss Press, Canada), now in its second printing. His latest, "New & Selected Poems," 1957-2011, is about to be published by Red Hen Press.

from Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: The Poems of Robert Sward

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Rus Bowden · at 2:48 PM

Don't Flinch

Lichen-green lines of shingle pulsate and waver

from Granta: Don't Flinch

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Rus Bowden · at 2:47 PM

By Andrew Greig

from The Guardian: The Saturday poem: A Long Shot

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Rus Bowden · at 2:43 PM

by Billy Ramsell, guest-edited by Brian Turner October 2011

Parallel Lovers

from Guernica: Poetry: Distant Fears

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Hong Kong
by Dunya Mikhail, guest-edited by Brian Turner October 2011

(1)

from Guernica: Poetry: Hong Kong

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My Father's City
by Pascale Petit, guest-edited by Brian Turner October 2011

All of Paris is quiet, while the oxygen machine

from Guernica: Poetry: My Father's City

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The Sleepwalker
by Matthew Sweeney, guest-edited by Brian Turner October 2011

The sleepwalker shot himself

from Guernica: Poetry: The Sleepwalker

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Smoke
by Michael Symmons Roberts, guest-edited by Brian Turner October 2011

First one tree, then another, horizons close

from Guernica: Poetry: Smoke

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Rus Bowden · at 2:43 PM

My dad would arrive at breakfast

from Morning Star: Well Versed: Together Again

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Rus Bowden · at 2:42 PM

My friends are here

from The Oregonian: Poetry: Imaginary Playground

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Rus Bowden · at 2:41 PM

In dreams we travel incognito

from PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'See You Tomorrow Night'

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Rus Bowden · at 2:41 PM

October 13, 2011 2:00 AM

Down by the bridge, the tidal water rushed out under a fog-

from Portsmouth Herald News: Random Acts of Poetry: Bridge Closing in Portsmouth

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By Lee Harrington
October 16, 2011 2:00 AM

Poem: The Solace of the Sea

I sit on "my" rock, peacefully, quietly, soaking in the serenity . . .

from Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: The Solace of the Sea

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Rus Bowden · at 2:38 PM

By Alexandra Teague

from Slate: "Cartier"--By Alexandra Teague

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Rus Bowden · at 2:33 PM

which brought out five collections between 1979 and 2004, but she also published a book of new and selected poems, Green Resistance, with Enitharmon in 1996. There were two prose, poetry and art compilations of real distinction in Island Chapters (1991) and Life on Limestone (1994). The former stems from the decade that she and her husband and their two small children spent on the island of Scarp in the Outer Hebrides. The latter is a reflection of upwards of 30 years living in a converted farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales.

from The Guardian: Anna Adams obituary

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Rus Bowden · at 2:32 PM

for both the Austin poetry journal Borderlands and the Austin International Poetry Festival. For the latter, she was the longtime editor of the youth anthology, Diverse Youth. "Deb also initiated and hosted many poetry reading venues," [Elzy] Cogswell said.

from The Statesman: Deborah Akers, 1949--2011

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Rus Bowden · at 2:31 PM

in journalism and literature.

He had been general secretary of 'Anjuman Tarqi Pasand Musanfeen' (Progressive Writers Association). He was comrade of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and close friend of Saher Ludhianvi and Ibne Insha. The famous writer was born in Indian city Ludhiana.

from The Nation: Hameed Akhtar passes away

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Rus Bowden · at 2:31 PM

tag sales, collecting books, music albums and tapes. Most of all he loved writing poetry.

from Herald Gazette: Gerard J. Blier

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Rus Bowden · at 2:30 PM

worked with the Peace and Justice Center of Southern California in the 1980s and also taught courses on feminist spirituality at the Immaculate Heart College Center, established after Immaculate Heart College closed in 1980.

At 85, Caspary secured a grant to teach poetry to older women who lived in her retirement home.

from Los Angeles Times: Anita Caspary dies at 95; 'rebel nun' founded Immaculate Heart Community

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Rus Bowden · at 2:29 PM

enjoyed the water and was passionate about the poetry and songs she wrote. She was preparing to start her own business, according to the obituary.

from The News-Times: Woman, 22, found dead in Greenwich home

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Rus Bowden · at 2:28 PM

Administrator and Teacher, and was also an artist and poet.

from The Maui News: Marie Dexter, 92

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Rus Bowden · at 2:27 PM

scholar and a computer geek. He was an artist, photographer, musician, boogie boarder, poet, gardener, lover of science fiction, and friend of all animals, especially cats.

from Santa Barbara Independent: A.R. "Pete" Diamond, Jr.: 1950-2011

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Rus Bowden · at 2:27 PM

and music criticism, including studies of Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, CS Lewis, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and on Mahler's Ninth Symphony; nine influential tomes on education; seven books of psycho-social and philosophical criticism; and 10 volumes of anthology. He also published some 10 semi-autobiographical novels, and seven volumes of intensely personal poetry.

Though held in high esteem by many, his books were never bestsellers.

from The Telegraph: David Holbrook

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Rus Bowden · at 2:26 PM

especially the song Punyabhoomi na desam.. had become an anthem in Andhra Pradesh.

The lyricist believed in the value of rich poetry and lyrics.

from IndiaGlitz: Lyricist Jaladi passes away

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Rus Bowden · at 2:25 PM

and they lived in Albert Lea where they enjoyed going to dances at the Eagles Club, attending classic car shows, and walks around the lake. Clarence died in 2010. Helen also enjoyed cooking, baking, writing poetry and traveling to Nevada and California to visit family.

from Albert Lea Tribune: Helen Kreager, 88, Albert Lea

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Rus Bowden · at 2:25 PM

poetry and was a member of the Sauk County Writers Group.

from Baraboo News Republic: Former Common Council member Betty Marquardt dies at 81

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Rus Bowden · at 2:24 PM

at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he was a professor of Spanish studies for four years before accepting a position at the University of Arizona, where for 30 years he was a recognized scholar in linguistics, philology and medieval Spanish literature. His professional and academic contributions include Spanish text books and numerous published articles. He was the founder of the Medieval journal, "La Coronica", as well as the author of two volumes on the 12th century epic poem about Alexander the Great, a literary work on which he devoted most of his academic career.

from Arizona Daily Star: Dana Arthur Nelson

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Rus Bowden · at 2:23 PM

German poetry in 1937 and went on to publish more than 150 books of literature in translation and several volumes of his own poetry and memoirs.

from The Prague Post: Ewald Osers (1917-2011)

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Rus Bowden · at 2:23 PM

as a junior high English and AVID teacher. Starting in 1991, she taught at Atascadero Junior High School for 20 years. Teaching was her passion which she believed kept her young and excited about the promise of life. Her innovative and creative style infused the love of poetry, reading and Shakespeare in her students. For thousands of kids the highlight of their school day was walking through Ms. Pentoney's door where she welcomed each of them with a smile and handshake.

from Paso Robles Press: Jill Anne Pentoney

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Rus Bowden · at 2:22 PM

to some and "Janie" to others, was an accomplished writer. Her poetry was published many times and she wrote for her friends and loved ones.

She was also a talented craftsperson with a vision and imagination to create beautiful things. She worked in lapidary, resin, copper, with wood lathes, fabric and she created amazing works of art on large wooden trunks.

from South Lincoln County News: Mary Jane (Hall) Robb

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Rus Bowden · at 2:21 PM

and painter. He especially loved poetry and was known for his ability to come up with comical puns.

from The Intelligencer: William G. Valko

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Rus Bowden · at 2:21 PM

a writer. Betty created a Poetry Program for Little Silver Schools. Her students will always remember her for her love of poetry and her determination to bring poetry into their lives. Betty was a member of "A Writer's Ink Project" and published "A Murmur through Trees" in 1991.

from Arizona Daily Star: Wardell, Elizabeth G. (Betty)

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Rus Bowden · at 2:20 PM

[Andrea] Zanzotto graduated in 1942 in Padua. He lived in France and Switzerland after the war before returning to his home.

He received the San Babila prize in 1950 from a jury including Italian poets Giuseppe Ungaretti, Salvatore Quasimodo and Eugenio Montale.

Starting in the early 1960s he broke with the hermetic poetic tradition and began writing about modern life in Italy's economic boom. He worked with cult director Federico Fellini and was a close friend of fellow poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

from The New Age: Italian poet Andrea Zanzotto dies at 90

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011