Back at it in Portland. Surprised the Feds didn’t bust it up. They hate us.
David Biespiel
@davidbiespiel.bsky.social
Poet, novelist, painter. Texas expat. Contributor to the New Yorker, New Republic, Orion, Poetry, APR, NYT. Thirteen books, including the forthcoming BEAUTIFUL IS THE WORLD: NEW & SELECTED POEMS.
Such a great podcast interview with the Lyn Lockwood [@popbeads177.bsky.social] of the Philip Larkin Society [@plsoc.bsky.social] about Larkin's life, his poems "I Remember, I Remember" and "Talking in Bed," British and American poetry, and much much more! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
David Biespiel
Podcast Episode · Tiny In All That Air · 02/28/2025 · 1h
podcasts.apple.com
This literary society is passionate and full of care for Larkin’s life and writing. Really great group. Lyn Lockwood is the best.
Philip Larkin Society@plsoc.bsky.social · 2y agoI Remember, I Remember and Talking In Bed discussed in some detail and some fascinating thoughts on US and British poetry from our guest David Biespiel this month. Please have a listen. It's free and you don't need to subscribe. podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/d...
Does the name Robert Moses ring a bell for you?
Mark Hamill@markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 2y agoKetchup On Walls Alert: HIGH
How it was going (11 years ago). How it's still going (this morning).
Hey, @bookcritics.bsky.social, great idea, the longlist. Those NBCC meetings where # 6-10 really do have a shot for top five but got cut = disheartening. Now at least they'll get some sunshine.
I love this opening stanza of Joseph Brodsky's "The end of a Beautiful Era."
Today’s Featured Poet: C.D. Wright (1949–2016), one of her generation’s most popular, formally restless, and influential poets, was recognized with scores of major awards. She published sixteen collections of poetry and prose and served on the faculty at Brown University for decades.
Paris cafe. (Morning sketchbook. Acrylic on paper. 5x7 in.)
Look at this beauty. A previously unpublished poem by my friend, the late LARRY LEVIS, in this week's New Yorker. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
“Homage to Willie Mays”
“I didn’t like or dislike baseball, I simply / Didn’t understand it.”
newyorker.com
"I watch the clouds as I see them in pomp advancing, pursuing the fallen sun." ~ Denise Levertov My morning sketchbook (gouache, on paper).
I like to think that, if I were alive on this day in 1942 (and obviously not drafted already and serving in the US military, that is), then I'd have been in a movie theatre to see the premiere of this gem.
Watch the Hugely-Ambitious Soviet Film Adaptation of War and Peace Free Online (1966–67) www.openculture.com/2022/07/watc...
Watch the Hugely-Ambitious Soviet Film Adaptation of War and Peace Free Online (1966–67)
On the question of whether novels can successfully be turned into films, the cinephile jury remains out. In the best cases a filmmaker takes a literary work and reinvents it almost entirely in accorda...
openculture.com
So many 'Blsky is good because...' posts. May I try? Blsky has fewer humblebrags so far. "I may never get through all these blurbs I have to write." Or: "The problem with my fully-funded residencies in the south of France is I have to revise so many poems for publication." Humility, I seek thee.
I am keeper of the post-MFA tumblr (crowdsourced) which has tons of info on post-MFA fellowships, BUT it also has info on residencies—with a whole section of shorter residencies for caregivers! Pass it on! #writers #writingcommunity post-mfa.tumblr.com/residencies
Post-MFA Resources
Fellowships, Residencies, and other resources for people with MFAs in Creative Writing...
post-mfa.tumblr.com
Name a poem by a poet that's the one poem in which all their others fit. Amalgam of personality+formal acumen. Take Robert Lowell: steely, umpteenth ambiguity, ungainly. One poem? "For the Union Dead." Joins patrician view of existence w subversive politics. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57035/...
For the Union Dead
Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass; my hand tingled to burst the bubbles drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish. Parking spaces luxuriate like civic sandpiles in the heart of...
poetryfoundation.org
This poem of Seamus Heaney's is so delicate. "The Haw Lantern."
The Helix Nebula captured by NASA'S Hubble space telescope
Good press to be watching very closely. Give ‘em a follow.
Unbound Edition Press@unboundedition.bsky.social · 2y agoSave on all of our titles -- plus free shipping -- for year-end celebrations! Use code BFCM30 at checkout in our shop: www.unboundedition.com/shop/#books #writers #authors #poets #poetry #memoir #fiction #writingcommunity
From the Department of Sometimes the Q/A at Readings Are Contentious. I was trying to find something in an email from four years back for a dear friend. No luck. But I came across this impossible exchange from a reading q/a when A PLACE OF EXODUS came out, must have been 2020. Tough crowd.
A two-line beauty of a poem entire by dear Thom Gunn. JAMESIAN Their relationship consisted In discussing if it existed.