Three Pitt poets have received 2015 honors from The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog by Alicia Suskin Ostriker has been selected for the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement (for previous winners of the Paterson Poetry Prize). City of Eternal Spring by Afaa Michael Weaver has been selected for the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence (for previous finalists of the Paterson Poetry Prize). Bloom in Reverse by Teresa Leo was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. Congratulations all around!  

Poetry Daily features the 1992 Foreword from The State of the Art by David Lehman. I remember when the Carter administration invited several hundred poets to the White House for a celebration of American poetry. There was a reception, handshakes with the president, the pop of flashbulbs. Concurrent poetry readings in various White House rooms capped off the festivities. In each room a few poets had been asked to read. The rest of the poets, the ones who hadn’t been asked to read, could attend the reading of their choice. A year later, Jimmy Carter lost the presidency. I used…

Florida poet Barbara Hamby, who has published three books with the Pitt Poetry series, is known for cooking up delicious verse. Poet Laureate Billy Collins described one of her collections as offering “a generous helping of poems so crackling with references and busy with verbal energy you might feel them buzzing in your hands.” It turns out that one of Hamby’s other passions is soup! “I love soup. It is the ultimate comfort food,” she said. Hamby usually has a freezer full of several different kinds, and enjoys trying new recipes.” Most of my soups are easy, and many are…

(geographically arranged from Cumberland to Pittsburgh) 1 Mile 5 – Helmstetter’s Curve For the first 13 miles the GAP is a rail-with-trail. You share the route with a classic steam train. Time your ride to catch the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad’s Mt. Thunder pounding through the sweeping 1/2 mile Helmstetter’s Curve on its way up the east side of Big Savage Mountain to Frostburg, MD.   2 Mile 22 – Big Savage Tunnel & Overlook Stop and relax at the Big Savage Overlook. From the edge of the trail you look southeast to waves of folded mountains and 3 states,…