CruelestMonth.com

Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection

This from the backlist (2004) -- Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection.  Introduced by Billy Collins from previously published LP liner notes.  I've been dabbling with recorded poetry the last few months, both listening and attempting to gather new readings, and it seemed like the thing to have.  According to Collins's introduction, here you'll find "a collection of top-drawer Dylan Thomas...the Caruso of the spoken word in peerless perfomance of his and other's works."  Those others include W.H. Auden, W.B. Yeats, Shakespeare, and, to my personal delight, Djuna Barnes.  He reads "Watchman, What of the Night?" a chapter from Barnes's exceptional work, Nightwood.  Below you'll find two audio excerpts:

Billy Collins's Introduction to Disc 1:
Download 01_a_childs_christmas_in_wales.wma

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night":
Download 03_do_not_go_gentle_into_that_goodnight.wma

The Heat

Usually there's at least a breeze, some coolness left in the trees when I walk to the subway.  Not this morning: the trash-flavored city summer is upon us. 

Pictures from ALA are slowly wending their way into my inbox.  I only documented the first day, and since I was setting up the whole time, my pictures really don't stand on their own.  Before my train left, I sauntered about Washington D.C. for a few hours.  I forgot how beautiful the capital is.  Really, it's right up there with anything else I have seen.

Now to the blogging, Nick DiMartino, a playwright, noveliest, and veteran bookseller, writes a tremendous blog called Novel World: The Best New Novels On This Planet.  While he does evaluate the best of what's new, his penchant for the classics is plain to see.  Among others, he has written an essay boldly titled "The Greatest Novel Ever Written."  And would you believe that I'm reading the very book he names supreme?  Oh, you don't care.  Well, it's a nice feeling all the same.  I wonder if there are any dissenting views.

Here's another interesting website, Razorpages.  Described as a "community for independent and small press authors where authors can connect with authors and readers can connect with authors."  This interweb of likeminded people is facillitated by blogs, podcasts, video podcasts, and more.

And Silliman is reviewed in the Philly Inquirer (link via Poetry Hut, thank you!)

Pleasant surprises...

It looks like Millicent Bennett, Associate Editor for Ecco, not only edits poetry, she inspires it.  Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion recently chose the winners of their Spring Lyric Contest.  Fifteen poems, out of 2,000 entries, were read on-air March 31st.  One of these fifteen qualified to win a Sleep Number bed from Select Comfort and three-dozen roses.  Penned by her father Bruce Bennett, "For Millicent and Giovanni, Who are going to Need a Bed" made it into the final fifteen, but did not luck out when Grace, a ten-year-old from Long Island, NY, chose from a hat the recipient of the bed and roses.  Still, Mr. Bennett's villanelle made it a long way and with MIllicent's permission I've reproduced it here:

"For Millicent and Giovanni, Who are going to Need a Bed"

By Bruce Bennett

Mill and Joe will soon be wed.
I will write a poem for Spring
that may win for them a bed.

Theirs is news that should be spread:
Love is such a splendid thing!
Mill and Joe will soon be wed.

Words that bind them will be said.
They will kiss and they will cling.
I must win for them a bed,

Or they'll use the floor instead,
much more suited for a fling.
Mill and Joe will soon be wed,

Flowers flung and tears be shed.
They've already got a ring.
What if they don't have a bed?

Therefore let this poem be read.
May it like the sweet birds sing!
Mill and Joe will soon be wed.
Bless their union with a bed!

The podcast of Garrison reading the poem can be found here.  Advance to 19:03 and you'll be right on it.

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Also, we're pleased to have been mentioned in "Online April is the Coolest Month" which appeared in PW today.

Podcasts

We've been hearing about these podcast thingies for quite some time now.  In fact, many of our colleagues have been involved in the creation of a few.  So in keeping with the times and in an effort to support the work of our peers, here are podcasts:

Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Rene Steinke and David Laskin

John Baxter

Bryan Charles