• Hey Everyone, We Have a New Poet Laureate! Juan Felipe Herrera is the first Mexican-American poet laureate we’ve ever had, and he’s the only person to write the poem Blood on the Wheel, which is one of those roiling incantatory numbers that’s best read aloud. If you’re not in a place in your life where you can read poems aloud, just know that when Herrera found out he was destined to receive the laurels he said, “This is a mega-honor for me.” That’s an ultra-cool phrase, Herrera, and I think it deserves a place in the lexicon.
• In related news: No one knows what the poet laureate does. The job description literally says the poet laureate “serves as the nation’s official lightning rod” for the poetic impulse of Americans.” Good luck with that, Herrera.
• Speaking of activist poets: Joyce Carol Oates is pissed at Triceratops poachers—or is she? Dunno if you saw this tweet on Wednesday, but:
So barbaric that this should still be allowed… No conservation laws in effect wherever this is? https://t.co/hgavm9IBaM
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) June 9, 2015
Some initially thought that the tweet implied the winner of a National Book Award and a couple O. Henry Awards didn’t know the Triceratops not only no longer lives among us, but may never have existed in the way that we thought in the first place. (If you are just now finding out that the Triceratops is like Pluto and the Brontosaurus, I’m sorry for this blow to your childhood.) Today, Oates confirmed that she was she’s just pullin’ legs, chokin’ chains—you know, JOKING.
• Speaking of huge beaks: Stop what you’re doing and try to finish the rest of this poem. Leave your poem in the comments for a chance to win a pair of panties.
• In other prize news: more writers just won PEN awards. Jack Livings won the $25,000 Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction with his book The Dog. Claudia Rankine deservedly scooped up the Open Book Award, a prize given for an exceptional book-length work by an author of color, for Citizen: An American Lyric. If you do not have that book, get that book.
• The Breadline Performance Series is closing its doors (for like the third time). Breadline is like a grungy variety show for literary types, and they’ve said they’re done before, but this time, they promise they’re done-zo for realsies. Writers Amy Glynn, Steve Barker, Shae Savoy, Anne Bean, and singer-songwriter Trent Thornily will lead the swan song. The organizers are selling an anthology of many former contributors, and the open mic after the main performance will feature some of the folk included therein. Get them to sign your crack. H.A.K.A.S, Breadline.
• Feeling a little sad that YOU aren’t being included in any anthologies? Then get to submitting. Try Ploughshares, Big Lucks, Fairy Tale Review, and American Short Fiction. See ya on the finalist list.
