Archive for November, 2007
Flying Off the Screen: Observations from the Golden Age of the American Video Game Arcade
Share “Flying Off the Screen: Observations from the Golden Age of the American Video Game Arcade” by Ernest Hilbert This is an essay I was asked to write for a book called Gamers: Writers, Artists, and Programmers on the Pleasures of Pixels, edited by Shanna Compton for the New York publishers Soft Skull. You can [...]
Full StorySome Honeymoon Pics
Share For those who haven’t heard, Lynn and I were married on October 20th. We left the next day for 10 days in Greece. Here are a few pictures of our island hopping. Here we are, happy as clams to be out of Philadelphia and in the Greek islands. At the Acropolis in Athens. [...]
Full Story“Money” – E-Verse Radio 35. November 21st, 2007
Share Click to Play “There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.” E-Verse cries poor in this episode with the help of Robert Graves, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ernie offers a bad impersonation of W.C Fields, Top 5 Money Songs, Money Facts that you may not have known [...]
Full StoryDavison, Peter (1928-2004), In Memoriam, by Ernest Hilbert
Share Davison, Peter (1928-2004) by Ernest Hilbert Poet and literary editor Peter Davison was a member of the generation of American poets who came of age in the middle of the twentieth century and rose to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Theirs was a generation that strained to define itself against the [...]
Full StoryCatch 18? How Three Classic Books Got Their Titles
Share A classic by any other name Excerpted from an article in the Telegraph Why is Joseph Heller’s famous “Catch” called “22″? Why is Bertie’s manservant called Jeeves? And why does the postman always ring twice (in a book that has no postman)? In these fascinating extracts from his new book, Gary Dexter reveals the [...]
Full StoryAfaa Michael Weaver on the Cover of Poets and Writers
Share This is a letter I recently sent to my friend, the poet Afaa Michael Weaver, after seeing him on the cover of the new Poets and Writers: Mike, What a genuine thrill it is to stroll into Barnes and Noble on Rittenhouse Square (a bookstore I generally try to avoid, my haunt being The [...]
Full StoryKathleen Rooney watches Poetry at the Movies
Share In the new issue of the Contemporary Poetry Review, Kathleen Rooney writes about poetry in movies. This is a piece I suggested to her about a year back, and as the editor of the CPR I have worked quite closely with her on it. I think she’s done an excellent job. I’ve added links [...]
Full StoryE-Verse Contessa brings us SWAG
Share A reminder to E-Versers that, although it has been a while since our last episode, we are not stopping production. Ernie got married, which apparently takes some organizing . . . who knew? The E-Verse Contessa offers up her favorite goodies that you can surely pass on to your friends as a Christmas gift [...]
Full StoryNorman Mailer on Gilmore Girls
Share With the recent passing of Norman Mailer (which I learned about only when I overheard it at The Last Word, my neighborhood bookshop, since I’m very “unplugged” on the weekends), I thought I’d share this clip of him on the television show Gilmore Girls, an appearance that strikes me as terribly undignified for some [...]
Full Story2008 Elizabeth Bishop Prizes
Share The 2008 Elizabeth Bishop Prizes Each year The Writing Studio at Walnut Hill invites young writers around the world who are currently in grades 8-11 (or at an equivalent stage in educational systems abroad) to submit work to the Elizabeth Bishop Prizes in Verse and Fiction. While a student at Walnut Hill from 1927 [...]
Full StoryOn the Rocks, a new verse drama by David Yezzi
Share The legendary David Yezzi is now a quadruple, nay, a quintuple literary threat: poet, librettist, anthologist, editor, and . . . . playwright! I attended the first performance of his new play On the Rocks last summer, at the legendary Bowery Poetry Club in downtown Manhattan. It is superb, and I cannot recommend it [...]
Full StoryHorace’s Epistle XIX, To Maecenas
Share A New York literary gentleman sent this lovely passage from Horace the other day. I believe it is Kit Smart’s translation. Epistle XIX. TO MAECENAS. O learned Maecenas, if you believe old Gratinus, no verses which are written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-lived. Ever since Bacchus enlisted the brain-sick poets among the [...]
Full StoryTop Five Great Rabbits in Literature
Share A longtime E-Verser sends in “Top Five Great Rabbits in Literature”: 5. The Watership Down rabbits 4. The Rabbits’ Wedding rabbits 3. Peter Rabbit 2. The Velveteen Rabbit 1. Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom Ernie’s commentary: I must say I agree with the number one slot on this list. The Rabbit Quaternary by John Updike—Rabbit, Run, [...]
Full StorySome More Wedding Pics
Share Lynn and I are back from our honeymoon in Greece, and the wedding pics are starting to flow in. Here are a few fun amateur ones from the Hilbert-Makowsky wedding (it sounds like a Mid-20th-Century European Non-Aggression pact of some kind). Looking for all the world like a dictator and wife after the putsch, [...]
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