Brilliant Minds

On Carol Ann Duffy

Begin with this extensive profile from the British Council.

Channel 4 notes (scroll down) on Duffy include a section on "Stealing".

Jeanette Winterson on Carol Ann Duffy.

Page on Duffy at the The Poetry Society.

Duffy as Poet Laureate reported by The Guardian with video.

On Jane Eryre adapted

A few items of interest to begin with:

Take a look at the Shared Experience Theatre's website.

Then review the company's education pack (pdf download) for Jane Eyre: Download Jane-eyre_edpack.pdf.

A NYTimes review by Bruce Weber.

Interesting little piece about Polly Teale and her daughter in The Guardian..

Amy Bloom and Away

Some links for getting to know Bloom:
Amy Bloom at the Washington Post on The Writing Life (video)
More video at Bloom's Amazon.com page for Away (scroll down)
Amy Bloom's website and the page for Away
Robert Birnbaum interviews Bloom at The Morning News
Interview with Bloom at Ready When You Are

Reviews of Away by:
Janet Maslin for the New York Times
Louisa Thomas for the New York Times
Ron Charles at the Washington Post
Richard Wallace for the Seattle Times
Natasha Walter for the Guardian
Maureen Corrigan at NPR (audio)

Beginning with Laxness

For background on Halldór Laxness, take a look at his profile on his Nobel Laureate page. We will consider what this 20th Century writer offers to our 21st Century contemporaries. The Great Weaver is described on the Archipelago Books site, with a blurb by current Booker Prize winner Alice Munro.

_{Painting by Einar Hákonarson under license.}

Begin here for Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves

Background on Louise Erdrich & her work:
About Louise Erdrich 
At HarperCollins

Reviews of The Plague of Doves:
New York Times (Kakutani)
New York Times (Barcott)
Washington Post (Charles)
Seattle Times (Wakefield)

An essay by Claire Messud on Erdrich and The Plague of Doves:
Blood Relations

Erdrich's bookshop: Birchbark Books

Wikipedia entry: Ojibwa

Follow up links for La Medusa

 Links to follow-up on our discussion of La Medusa:

More discussions with Vanessa Place:
LEMON HOUND Round One
LEMON HOUND Round Two
Les Figues Press

On the mythological figure of the Medusa:
Medusa in Myth and Literary History
(excellent overview of sources, commentary, and images)

On the literary device of ekphrasis:
Notes on Ekphrasis by Alfred Corn
"On the Medusa of Leonardo" Shelley's poem
Ekphrasis - Wikipedia

On conceptual art:
UbuWeb Anthology of Conceptual Writing
Conceptual art - Wikipedia

NYQ 65

 The new issue of The New York Quarterly (#65) is out. See page 151 for my poem "Deeper than Dante". Read, subscribe, support! If you're downtown, St. Mark's Bookshop has copies on their shelf (as of this past Thursday afternoon).

Poetry Festival

If you're in the neighborhood of West Caldwell, NJ, on Sunday, May 17th, come to the Poetry Festival at the West Caldwell Public Library. It's one of the best festivals of its kind.

Thank yous! & Reviews

Thank you all, for an enlightening Spring session! I deeply appreciate your enthusiasm and generosity! And now, as we move into Summer, here are reviews for our first two books, The Bruise and La Medusa at Bookslut. More resources below:

Magdalena Zurawski on North Carolina Public Radio.

An interesting post at <HTMLGIANT>, with an interview of Vanessa Place.

Vanessa Place video interview from YouTube:

Poet Laureate on our Summer List

Carol Ann Duffy, on our book list for Literature for the 21st Century, X02.9054, has been named Britain's first female Poet Laureate. The NY Times reports.