As reported this morning by the Times, John Ashbery has been selected the first poet laureate for mtvU--a subsidiary of MTV Networks. The channel, mtvU, runs exclusively on college and university television networks. From "An 80-Year-Old Poet for the MTV Generation":
Excerpts of his poems will appear in 18 short promotional spots — like commercials for verse — on the channel and its Web site (mtvu.com, which will also feature the full text of the poems). In another first, mtvU will help sponsor a poetry contest for college students. The winner, chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, will have a book published next year by HarperCollins as part of the National Poetry Series.
“We hope that we’ll help discover the next great poet that we’ll be talking about for years to come,” said Stephen K. Friedman, the general manager of mtvU, which broadcasts at 750 campuses nationwide.
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