In a year that has already been rife with the passing of several writers, I’m sad to report that poet Robert Creeley passed away this morning after becoming very ill with pneumonia. I had the pleasure of interviewing him early last year, and we corresponded a little bit after that. He was definitely an important figure in American poetry, but from the little I got to know of him through the interview and subsequent e-mails, he seemed to be a really cool …

I’m not sure if March is going out like a lamb or not, but I do know that there are plenty of literary awards still being doled out and new poet laureates on the horizon, and that literature is becoming more mobile every day. Come, take a stroll with me through the literary headlines that have crossed my desk this week.

– Continuing the growing trend of literary musicals is James Joyce: the Musical. Ok, it’s actually called “Himself and Nora” and focuses …

In January 2001, I was playing around with some Java software at work when I heard the poet Gregory Corso had died. I decided to try this new software out by putting up a Corso tribute board, and this is how the LitKicks boards were born.

The boards grew and evolved into a massive social experiment, often taking on a life of their own. Last July, 684,000 messages later, Caryn and Jamelah and I decided to shut down the boards and …

Picture it: you’re at a party, and everybody starts talking about these great books they’ve read. And you? Well, you’ve read some good stuff in the past, but lately, your reading material consists of e-mail, grocery store checkout headlines, and the bumper stickers on the car in front of you when you’re stuck in traffic.

It happens.

And there you are, listening to everyone talking about that book that’s so good, oh man, everybody’s reading (or has read) it, and you’re getting a …

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled Seen & Heard programming next week, but today I’d really like to know what you’re reading. Have you been hearing a lot of buzz about any one must-read book? Maybe you’re reading a new selection from an old favorite — or trying something completely new. Share your latest reads, how you picked them (or how they picked you) and what you think of them so far.

Last week I asked about your favorite poems, and I really enjoyed the stream of responses which included, in the order in which they were posted: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot, “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr, “The Height of the Ridiculous” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Matthew 6:25 - 34, “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” by Walt Whitman, “The City in Which I Love You” by Li-Young Lee, “Poem In October” by Dylan Thomas, “Constantly …

I’m sure that there as many opinions on how to write as there are writers. One thing that I’ve picked up during the time I’ve participated in LitKicks is that people go about creating in a lot of different ways, and one of the more obvious differences (at least to me) is the one that exists between spontaneous and (for lack of a better term) non-spontaneous writing.

Certainly there are arguments for both kinds of writing — the stuff that comes out in one sitting …

Literary news abounds this week in the most unexpected places.

– Since it’s women’s history month, I thought you may be interested in the latest tell-all book about one of literature’s greatest heroines. Yes, it’s been a long time coming, but finally someone has dared to expose the darker side of … Nancy Drew. The Dark Side of River Heights: Observations of the Untold and the Unflattering seeks to uncover those burning questions about the popular girl detective.

– Speaking …

Poet Philip Lamantia passed away last week at the age of 77. His obituary is available at the San Francisco Chronicle, but I thought, in tribute, I’d put up a couple of his poems. Please feel free to share your thoughts about the poet or his work.

I have given fair warning

I have given fair warning
Chicago New York Los Angeles have gone down
I have gone to Swan City where the ghost 
   of Maldoror may still roam
The south is very …

       
    

I recently stumbled across a well-known poem I’d read many times before, and something compelled me to read it yet again.

There are only a few poems I know so well that they feel like well-worn clothing to me, and this poem happens to be one of them. I know at least half the lines by heart, even though I’ve never tried to memorize it. And now, as I read it again, I am yet still amazed by how powerful, chemical and …