blackbird online journal Spring 2008  Vol. 7  No. 1

A joint venture of the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review, Inc.

 

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FEATURES

A Conversation with Matt Donovan
published April 15, 2009

   
On September 18, 2008, the Department of English and the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Virginia Commonwealth University awarded the Eleventh Annual Levis Reading Prize to Matt Donovan for Vellum, his first book of poems. The next day, in a session transcribed here, Donovan answered questions about his work and process for VCU English faculty and graduate students.   Matt Donovan
     
Carol Houck Smith: Editor Extraordinaire  audio icon
published March 24, 2009
   

At the 2008 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in New York, Blackbird sponsored a tribute to the work of Carol Houck Smith, a celebration of the persistence and care she showed to many poets during her editing career at W. W. Norton. In the event recording published here, poets Stephen Dunn, Beth Ann Fennelly, A. Van Jordan, Gerald Stern, and Ellen Bryant Voigt make brief remarks and read from their poems. Smith provides closing comments.

  Carol Houk Smith
     
A Reading by Tomaž Šalamun  audio icon 
published February 23, 2009
   
On February 13, 2008, renowned Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun read at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Poetic Principles series.  Šalamun read his work in English and Solovenian, including "Faith," previously published with a different English translation in Blackbird v7n1, Spring 2008. His most recent book, There’s the Hand and There’s the Arid Chair, will be available from Counterpath Press in spring 2009.   Tomaž Šalamun
     
David Baker: A Reading and Conversation  audio icon 
published February 6, 2009
   
On November 28, 2007, poet David Baker read at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as part of Poetic Principles. This series brings to Richmond the best poets, writers, critics, and translators at work today. Baker read nine poems from publications such as The Paris Review, The Southern Review and The New Yorker, as well as from his most recent collection Midwest Eclogue. After the reading, Baker talked to Blackbird about his work as an editor and writer.    David Baker
     
A Reading by Charles Wright  audio icon   
published Dec 1, 2008
   

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Wright read at the University of Richmond’s Keller Hall on November 6, 2007.  In our featured recording, Wright is introduced by the poet Brian Henry, an associate professor of creative writing at UR. Wright reads poems from A Short History of the Shadow (2002), Buffalo Yoga (2004), Scar Tissue (2006), and Littlefoot: A Poem (2007). Wright ends with a number of unpublished poems.

  Charles Wright
     
Levis Remembered  audio icon                           
published Nov 14, 2008
   

Welcome to Blackbird’s seventh Levis Remembered, a visit with the poetry, prose, and voice of Larry Levis and a reading by the eleventh annual Levis Reading Prize winner, Matt Donovan. Also included is a poem dedicated to Levis by Gerald Stern, and a reading by Stern given in Richmond, Virginia, in 2007. Look for additonal content to be added to this Reading Loop over the course of the issue. Thanks to Larry’s sister, Sheila Brady, and his son, Nick Levis, for the opportunity to recognize him here.

  Larry Levis
     

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