In the last ten years, Charles Simic, Mark Strand, James Tate, Stephen Dunn, Franz Wright and Naomi Shihab Nye have published books of prose poetry. Before them, Rilke, Baudelaire, Poe, Whitman, … [Read more...]
Aural Dialectics: On Allen Ginsberg’s Musical Rendition of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789) is a collection of illuminated poems separated into two groupings, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, that engage with their … [Read more...]
Charles Reznikoff’s “During the Second World War…” as Objectivist Ars Poetica
This essay is dedicated to Charles Bernstein A poem I keep coming back to again and again is Charles Reznikoff’s “During the Second World War, I Was Going Home One Night,”1 first published in … [Read more...]
Joints
One of San Pedro’s most appealing qualities is that it’s not very popular. When I first decided to move here from Venice my neighbor, a realtor, suggested why. “It’s so working class, just a lot … [Read more...]
David Gitin’s Ten Favorite Books
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf Awakening Osiris by Normandi Ellis Book of the Hopi by Frank Waters Flash of the Spirit by Robert Farris Thompson The New American Poetry, … [Read more...]
Gloria Avner’s Ten Favorite Books
The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok The Crack in the Cosmic Egg by Joseph Chilton Pearce The Amazing Adventures … [Read more...]
Dylan Thomas reads “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”
Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales" is one of the best known Chirstmas poems. "This recording was digitized from the LP, "Dylan Thomas Reading Volume 1," issued on the Caedmon label in … [Read more...]
David Handley’s interview with Author Alex Preston
Alex Preston was born in Worthing, West Sussex in 1979. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, 2010's This Bleeding City, and The Revelations which was released in 2012. As well as his … [Read more...]
Book Review – Erik Verhaar’s Andalusian Dogging
Andalusian Dogging by Erik Verhaar, translated by Jonathan Ellis / The Reception Game / 2013 / 17 pages In Erik Verhaar's short story, inspired by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's 1929 film An … [Read more...]
Cry, Exploration, Ceremony
Oppositional postmodernist literature is associated with the Beat movement and came about after the terrible, unforeseen destruction of World War II. While the modernists were positive about the human … [Read more...]
The Jack Kerouac Upper Peninsula Diary by t. kilgore splake, reviewed
The Jack Kerouac Upper Peninsula Diary / t. kilgore splake / Angst Publications / PO Box 508, Calumet, MI 49913-0508 / 1998 The author provided Empty Mirror with a review copy. “Happiness … [Read more...]
Gary A.’s Ten Favorite Books
1. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse 2. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac 3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 4. Ask the Dust by John Fante 5. Sixty-Seven Poems For Downtrodden Saints by Jack … [Read more...]
Love in the no-land space between two cultures: an interview with Zlatko Anguelov
Jasmina Tacheva talks with Bulgarian-American author Zlatko Anguelov about his newest book, Erotic Memories (2012), and the ideas of love, devotion, harmony and memory on the border between two … [Read more...]
Ten Favorite Books List Contributed by Josechu C.
1. Artificial Paradises by Charles Baudelaire. In perfect style the author praises the marvelous effects that wine and hash have on him. 2. Stomping the Goyim by Michael Disend. How to be gay, … [Read more...]
Bruce Hodder’s Ten Favourite Books
1. In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan 2. Big Sur – Jack Kerouac 3. Desert Solitaire – Edward Abbey 4. Ulysses – James Joyce 5. The Narrow Road to the Deep North – Matsuo Basho 6. … [Read more...]
Mark A.’s Top Ten Books List
1. The Book Of JOB in the OT, La Bible de Jerusalem preferably There was once a man in the land of Uz & the final word was with Yahweh. 2. A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud Emotion, Images, … [Read more...]
Ten Favorite Books List Contributed by Little
1. The Complete Fiction by Bruno Schulz As close to a dream as writing can get. 2. Cages by Dave McKean The safety of illusions, the golden cage of lost hopes. McKean is the Stanley Kubrick of … [Read more...]
Christina C.’s Ten Favorite Books
1. Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac Ahhhh Ti Jean...in my eyes you're best 2. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins Zany and great 3. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran One of those life books … [Read more...]
Poet A.D. Winans’ Top Ten Books List
1. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse 2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 3. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller 4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest … [Read more...]
Eric D. Lehman’s Ten Favorite Books
1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 2. The Magus by John Fowles 3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac 4. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller 5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 6. One … [Read more...]