Category: Poetry and Poets

Toni Stern, Who Wrote Songs With Carole King, Dies at 79

A sunny California poet, she provided the words to songs on “Tapestry” and other albums, including the enduring hit “It’s Too Late.”
In a Downtown New York Tradition, Cleansing the New Year With Poetry

On the first day of the year, over a thousand devotees passed through the old church where the Poetry Project has held its annual 12-hour marathon for the last half-century.
Read Your Way Through Utah

Utah is a place of paradoxes, full of terrible beauty and complicated history. The writer Terry Tempest Williams recommends books to help you explore the state’s many facets.
Seeing Double With the Publishing Twins

Jean Garnett is an editor at Little, Brown. Callie Garnett is an editor at Bloomsbury. They’re always rooting for each other — even when they’re competing for the same book.
Aaron Rose’s Drunken, Youthful Poems From the ’90s

The artist and former gallerist Aaron Rose had the coolest indie gallery in an era of creative explosion in downtown New York. A new book (of old work) captures that long-lost moment.
Read Your Way Through Madrid

Like many who call Madrid home, Elena Medel was born elsewhere, but forged her identity in the Spanish capital. Here, she recommends books about this city that “refuses to be reduced to an ideal.”
A Harvard Professor Prepares to Teach a New Subject: Taylor Swift

Swift-inspired classes are sweeping colleges across the country.
‘Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project’ Review: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey

The experimental documentary is punctuated by Giovanni’s poetry, read both by her and the actress Taraji P. Henson. But the film offers only what the poet is willing to give.
Read Your Way Through Missoula

Montana calls to storytellers: The cold clear waters of its rivers have carried the voices of its inhabitants from time immemorial, says Debra Magpie Earling, one of its writers. Here, she recommends her favorites.
Tiny Love Stories: ‘To My Surprise, This Charming Man Began to Cry’

Modern Love in miniature, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words.
Jamila Woods Puts Herself at the Center of “Water Made Us”

“Water Made Us,” a new album due Oct. 13, achieves the musician’s greatest synthesis yet between her voices as a poet and as a songwriter.
Read Your Way Through Seoul

Han Kang grew up in Seoul, a city that embraces “thousands of years of turbulence.” She recommends reading that draws from the various eras that have made up her hometown.