Bloomington poet Doris Lynch attends a haiku conference

Her column in the Bloomington Herald-Times:

"Mention that you're going to a haiku conference and you receive some jokes. Do they lecture in 5/7/5 syllables? Does it end in a hour? Do haiku artists bow ehen they meet?" Read more here.

Bruce Snider at James Merrill's home

"I mean, I grew up in Indiana, a very small town in Indiana. If you tell people where I'm from that you're a poet, it's like a conversation stopper. It's like saying you're a giraffe."

Read more here.

Review of "Bringing the Shovel Down," by Ross Gay '96

Ross Gay teaches at Indiana University, Bloomington. The review is here.

Follow-up: Artwork might not be removed at airport

Airport officials have to make a quick decision abot the James Wille Faust mobile. Read the Indianapolis Star report here.

Levine is new U.S. poet laureate

From AP: Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Levine, known for his detailed and personal verse about the working class, has been appointed the country's new poet laureate.
Click here for complete story.

Advertising dollars vs. art

James Wille Faust's "Chrysalis" is being replaced by advertising at the Indianapolis International Airport:

http://www.ibj.com/airport-artist-complains-about-removal-of-public-art/PARAMS/article/28814

Best Books of Indiana 2011 finalists

From the Indiana Center of the Book:

Finalists have been named for the Children/YA, Fiction and Poetry categories for the 2011 Best Books of Indiana Competition. Finalists for the fourth category, Nonfiction, will be named by August 19, 2011 due to volume of category entries.

This year’s Best Books of Indiana finalists are as follows:

CHILDREN/YA:
■Nature's Storyteller: The Life of Gene Stratton-Porter by Barbara Olenyik Morrow (Indiana Historical Society Press)
■Sources of Light by Margaret McMullan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
■Summer Sanctuary by Laurie Gray (Luminis Books)

FICTION:
■Bedlam at the Brickyard by Brenda R. Stewart (Cardinal Publishing)
■The Boy from the O by Sandy Kendall (Author House)
■The Scorpion Trail by Larry Sweazy (Berkley Publishing Group

POETRY:
■Poetry from Paradise Valley edited by Edward Byrne (Pecan Grove Press)
■Seeded Light by Edward Byrne (Turning Point Books)
■Shadows Set in Concrete by JL Kato (Restoration Press)

NONFICTION:

Coming Soon

Winners in all four categories will be announced by August 31. All 2011 entries are now listed in the Indiana State Library’s catalog. One copy of each entry will remain in the State Library’s collections indefinitely. Another copy is available to most Hoosiers via interlibrary loan from their local public library.