Edited by author 04-19-2005 10:04 AM
Can-po in Soho

We're infiltrating the American poetry market. An army of polite Canadian poets heads South to spread the Gospel of Edge. We're big, we're bad, and we're...actually, kinda cute. While eminent U.S. sociologist, Kitty Warkle worries the title of this anthology may attract stray bullets, publicist Joni Bickle maintains that Open Field is meant "to illicit a breaking down of fences, an open field, if you will.

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Some of our adult reviewers could learn a thing or two from the Guardian's teen critics. I think that book's a terrific idea. I know I hated--or rather just didn't care about--poetry until I was 21 and finally encountered some stuff that spoke to me more than the standard curriculum choices; starting there, and growing older, led to an appreciation of more canonical stuff. I still hate poetry, but that's another story.

"I'm sick of this damn war: the blood, the noise, the endless poetry."

Teens act as editors for a poetry anthology directed at... teens! It's so crazy, it just might work!!

The book is divided into five themed sections, each compiled by a group of 10 teenagers from a different part of the UK. Every group was joined by a poet whose role it was to help them decide upon their theme and be on hand to oversee the selection process and provide advice or direction, should it be needed.



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Tsunami gig

New Beginnings is a powerhouse anthology with proceeds going to Tsunami relief. It'll contain the first chapters of new books by a range of major authors, including: Coetzee, Atwood, King, Coelho, Haddon, Hornby, Turow, and Binchy. Normally I am suspicious of celebrity gatherings (why do we hold massive parties for our people in order to help out those who barely cling to life? Would it be too much to just GIVE the money?), but I couldn't help but think, wow!

Then I got to this line, "And from the authors’ point of view, it is also good to let the public know what direction their work is taking." That's when I remembered that nothing really gets done for altruistic reasons. There's always someone making money.

I'm sorry, a) it's not the authors' point of view, it's the publishers', and b) neither the author nor the publisher get a fucking point of view on this unless it's crying in front of the TV. That's your point of view. That or standing in a hangar somewhere stuffing boxes with water purification pills. And crying. That's what you're allowed. A tear-blurred POV that has nothing to do with your work.

Disaster is not an opportunity for nifty collaboration to amuse the masses and move a few books. So just get your fat celebrity chequebooks out and starting writing whoppers instead of trying to make the pages of People. (Sorry, most of this is directed at that disgrace called the music industry.)



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1000 Pages of Poetry... Hopefully Far Fewer of Bloom

Smart guy and lit snob Harold Bloom has published his own dream anthology, The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Frost.

While sarcastic asides lend Bloom's essays punch, his passion for text-based exposition gives his writing its great heart. Poetry is serious business for Bloom, who scorns democratic or politically correct concerns when it comes to art's purpose.



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And like the phonebook, most lit journals make for dull reading. I generally like anthologies that reflect a coherent artistic vision of some sort; ones that are assembled not according to subject/theme and not according to who's doing what where in an incredibly inclusive and hence diffuse sort of way, but that are based unapologetically on editorial taste and discrimination, which is only a dirty word when it's indiscriminate.

The Anansi book of which we're speaking is "New British Poetry". 36 poets from England, Scotland and Wales. A tough chore to find a weak poem in the bunch.

Edited by author 04-27-2004 03:23 PM
Anthologies are not the answer. They are harmless for the most part. What about that M&S one that Hal edited back in 1899, that one had some good things in it. Concrete Blender or whatever it was called. What is the Anansi one that is so great? I think the anthology form is good so long as it can not be so obvious in its theme. I mean, the phone book is an anthology isn't it? Perhaps editors of these anthologies get worried they won't meet the deadline and start accepting their great grandmother's poetry. Perhaps topically publishers have just run out of themes, gimmicks, to cram or exploit the omni-headed roster that a team of writers brings to the anthology marriage/orgy. Most literary journals to me seem to operate in this 'anthology' premise. I may have said too much. No officer, I was just stating...

I agree with you, Sopwith, but get that Anansi one. Worth every penny. I love The Rattle Bag, too. Most other anthos piss me off for one reason or another, however, or, worse yet, are vaguely dissatisfying.

Edited by author 04-26-2004 11:53 PM
So not a fan of anthologies. They're being compiled about anything and everything these days. It's gotten out of hand really. Although I'll admit I'm tempted by the new Anansi one. In general though, no thanks.

What Hath the Anthology Wrought?

"In brute commercial terms, there is no advantage for most publishers in maintaining contemporary poetry lists, and its publishers generally justify their approach on the basis of prestige." Hm. That's funny. I thought they continued to publish poetry out of sheer habit. "Anthologies are ideal: they offer a pre-filtered selection of the vast diversity of poetic practice: most often a pick-and-mix counter of the more easily swallowed contemporary poems, with some traditional flavours and favourites." Hm. That's funny. That's how I feel about most anthologists. "If you can't get your message across clearly, briefly and swiftly, you can forget it. And so the poem approaches the soundbite, under the logic of capitalism." Hm. That's funny. Wait a minute. No it's not.



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"Prepackaged meals are generally inferior to home cooking. What about prepackaged anthologies?"

Best American - like being off shore and looking at the country through a powerful telescope.



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