poets born in october

“He Goads Himself,” Louis Untermeyer (October 1, 1885)
“The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm,” Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879)
“The Day-Breakers,” Arna Bontemps (October 13, 1902)
“Sunset,” E. E. Cummings (October 14, 1894)

“My Father Is a Retired Magician,” Ntozake Shange (October 18, 1948)
“Sojourns in the Parallel World,” Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923)
“Morning Song,” Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932)
“Sonnet X [To one who has been long in city pent],” John Keats (October 31, 1795)

mojave ghost

Happiness, she said once, is for amateurs.

Congratulations to former Chancellor Forrest Gander on his latest book, Mojave Ghost, published this week by New Directions. Read an excerpt:

“[She wasn’t fixed, necessarily, on happiness]”
“[In the city, a weather of zeros-and-ones]”
“[An olivine moon. The sum of what]”

chancellors reading

Don’t miss the Academy of American Poets’ ninetieth anniversary celebration at the Guggenheim Museum, featuring readings by our Chancellors. 

Friday, Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. ET

Tickets are $15, or $12 for Academy and Guggenheim members

pick of the week

Join writer and curator Omar Berrada’s seminar on the Lebanese American poet and painter Etel Adnan, exploring the innumerable forms her work took over the decades. (Sponsored)