Pitt poet Charles Harper Webb, author of Brain Camp, has some rather controversial advice for today’s poets, and claims he can help them become better at their craft and sell more books! So, Publishers Weekly gave him a soapbox. A Cure for What Ails Poetry A poet argues that more accessible poems will lead to broader interest in poetry—and more sales By Charles Webb | Apr 03, 2015 Featured on Publishers Weekly Soapbox It’s no secret that the main audience for poetry is other poets. If you want to slow or even stop a party conversation, ask, “What new poets are you…

Pittsburgh’s North Side has been in the news a lot lately. The community is trying to raise money to rebuild a historic fountain, renovate a landmark theater, and is marking the loss of a historic factory. Pittsburgh Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney and architectural historian Carol Peterson have written the definitive history of this neighborhood. You’re invited to hear them discuss their book and get a signed copy. April 21, 6 p.m. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh-North Side 1230 Federal St. Pittsburgh, PA 15212 April 28, 6:30 p.m. Classic Lines 5825 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217 May 27, 6 p.m. Allegheny City…

Robert D. Lifset is the Donald Keith Jones Assistant Professor of Honors and History at the University of Oklahoma. Lifset’s research and teaching interests focus on energy history broadly defined. This includes the business, policy, political, environmental, social and cultural history of energy with a focus, though not exclusive, on the United States in the 20th century. His books include Power on the Hudson, Storm King Mountain and The Emergence of Modern American Environmentalism (2014) and American Energy Policy in the 1970s (2014). Lifset is currently researching a history of the energy crisis of the 1970s.  Robert Lifset is also the founding web and list editor…

When Larry Levis died suddenly in 1996, Philip Levine wrote that he had years earlier recognized Levis as “the most gifted and determined young poet I have ever had the good fortune to have in one of my classes. . . . His early death is a staggering loss for our poetry, but what he left is a major achievement that will enrich our lives.” Each of his books was published to wide critical acclaim, and David St. John has collected together the best of his work from his first five books. “It is not an exaggeration to say that…

The Performance It’s not right that she should do this to her body as she speaks, but it’s the only way we can understand her. We who weren’t raised on sand and cherry-pits. Whose stepfathers held their tempers. The South is a mean place we forget about. The windows boarded up all over town. She says, dogs chased her down the tar- soaked road like devils. Each dog with three heads, three tails. She says, we might’ve mocked her story, but never now. First, she strikes nails against her chest like matches. Then, when we think we can’t take more…