Archive for 'Ernie'
“Deemed Truly Nefarious (To Us Hilarious)”: Ernest Hilbert Reads with Daniel Nester, Elizabeth Gold, and David Yezzi
Hey, you, yes, you, stop by to see us read at Robin’s!
Full Story“Without a Net”: Ernest Hilbert on Optic, Graphic, Acoustic, and Other Formations in Free Verse in the Contemporary Poetry Review
Many strategies have emerged to cope with the open field of free verse, several of them before Frost was even born. When moving away from oppositional definitions—free verse is non-metrical, non-strophic—one is confronted with such a vast array of possibilities and examples that it is necessary to summarize and, at times, simplify them for the sake of argument. The possibilities are staggering, but one must begin somehow.
Full Story“Some Believed Songs Might Fill the Gulf”: Ten Years On . . .
We had a friend who volunteered for the Red Cross. She would turn up every 24 hours or so, when she was ordered to get some sleep, though she couldn’t. We’d sit around attending her stories. It was all so awful, so unbelievable, those days, and this anniversary, so nearly overdone by network television, still brings back powerful pangs of grief and, yes, anger, rage, that I felt scorch through me like electric shocks.
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Ernest Hilbert’s “April Dreams (Lacrimosa)” in the New Issues of OnandOnScreen and BOMB
Check out my poem “April Dreams (Lacrimosa)” in the summer issue of BOMB magazine partnered withThomas Devaney’s magazine ONandOnScreen. Others in the issue include Elaine Equi, Christina Davis, and Matthew Zapruder.
Full StoryMassachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem
May 12th to 14th in the beautiful and historic town of Salem!
Full StoryE-Verse DJ Keith Sends in “Skull a Day”
The site gives you a new skull every day. A bit early for Halloween, but why can’t we keep the spirit of Halloween in our hearts all year long?
Full StoryErnest Hilbert Reads with Timothy Donnelly and Matthew Zapruder
Tuesday, April 12th, 7PM, Robin’s Books/Moonstone Arts Center, upstairs from the old Robin’s Books. 110 South 13th Street. Philadelphia, PA 19107. (215) 735-9598.
Full Story“YOU WERE BORN TO FEEL A WAY / YOU DON’T HAVE A WORD FOR”: The Poster!
Limited edition poster for the April 12th, 2011, reading at Robin’s Books/Moonstone Arts Center to celebrate National Poetry Month, featuring poets Ernest Hilbert, Timothy Donnelly, and Matthew Zapruder, one of 12 numbered copies, signed by the designer, all three authors, and emcee (and two proof copies, hors série), featuring the official Nemean Lion chop stamp on reverse.
Full Story“Why Must We Love?” by Ernest Hilbert
From the forthcoming collection All of You on the Good Earth, original appearance in Michael Schavio’s magazine The Equalizer.
Full StoryInstructors, Instigators, Professors, Prophets: Request an Exam Copy of the New Penguin Poetry: A Pocket Anthology
If you teach a course in poetry, you may request an exam copy of the latest edition of Penguin’s Poetry: A Pocket Anthology.
Full StoryErnest Hilbert Appears in Two New Penguin Anthologies
Purchase at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Alibris.
Full StoryErnest Hilbert Reads with Nick Moudry at the Free Library of Philadelphia
Ernest Hilbert reads with Nick Moudry, 6:30PM to 8:30PM, Skyline Room of the Philadelphia Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, Logan Square. Stop by if you can. We’d love to see you!
Full StoryErnest Hilbert’s Poem “Dredge” in Two Weeks: A Digital Anthology of Contemporary Poetry
Two Weeks is a new anthology of contemporary poetry, released exclusively in ebook format. The book was compiled, edited, designed, coded, and published in exactly 14 days by the editors of Line Break magazine.
Full StoryDeath-Metal Culinary School: Tom Angelripper’s Hunter-style Westphalian Savoy Roulades
For Christmas, my brother, ever alert to curiosities in the slipstream of popular culture, gave me a heavy metal cookbook titled (cleverly, I think) Mosh Potatoes, recipes by (you guessed it) heavy metal musicians. According to the publisher, Mosh Potatoes features “147 recipes that every rock ’n’ roll fan will want to devour—including some super-charged Spicy Turkey Vegetable Chipotle Chili from Ron Thal of Guns N’ Roses, Orange Tequila Shrimp from Joey Belladonna of Anthrax (complete with margarita instructions), Italian Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs from Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society (a homemade family dish), Krakatoa Surprise from Lemmy of Motörhead (those who don’t really like surprises may want to keep a fire extinguisher handy), and Star Cookies from Dave Ellefson of Megadeth.”
Full Story“A Strange and Beautiful Noise: Late Ashbery Syndrome, or, Listening without Hearing” by Ernest Hilbert in the new Contemporary Poetry Review
Invariably described by critics as “difficult,” Ashbery (perhaps disingenuously) considers himself a simple and direct author of poems that deliberately switch tone, speaker, mood, tense, voice, and idiom seemingly at random. He cobbles together an aural surface that imitates the ADD noise of our channel-hopping daily lives, our bombardment by contradictory opinions, unconnected images, and raw data on a scale impossible to assimilate. He acknowledges in an interview with Daniel Kane for What is Poetry: Conversations with the American Avant-Garde that he “frequently incorporate[s] overheard speech,” and, as for the role randomness and chance might play in his poems, he concedes “I am a believer in fortuitous accidents.” These are trappings commonly associated with the urbane postmodern aesthetic. Put another way, postmodernism of the kind that Ashbery offers is frequently a nihilistic type of modernism. At times, he seems to enjoy confusion and instability, even as poetic process: “It’s a question of a sudden feeling of unsureness at what I am doing, wondering why I am writing the way I am, and also not feeling the urge to write in another way.” This does not arise from a provocative or incendiary instinct, as he explains in the Paris Review, but rather the belief that one must keep moving or be in danger of ossification.
Full Story“Serious Science . . .”
I had the pleasure of appearing as a guest in Lynn Levin’s writing course at the University of Pennsylvania last night to discuss the vast mysteries of poetry and vagaries of literature at large. I read selections from the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets and fielded some inventive and very perceptive questions prepared in advance by the members of the class. I had a wonderful time, so I was, in fact, smiling throughout, but when the class ended, as all good things must, my wife, who sat in, felt it was a shame to waste all the wonderful cuneiformaic [ha, sic] calculus on the boards. Below my photo I present the iconic and rather cold T.S. Eliot image I had in mind when I posed. Thus my scowl, which is entirely in jest.
Full StoryPints and Poems on a Lazy Sunday Afternoon: Ernest Hilbert reads with Bill Coyle, Anna Evans, April Lindner, James Matthew Wilson, Alfred Nicol and David Yezzi at Victory Collaborative!
Ernest Hilbert reads with Bill Coyle, Anna Evans, April Lindner, James Matthew Wilson, Alfred Nicol, and David Yezzi! WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE?
Full Story“I will not warn against poetry-industrial complexes . . .”: Ernest Hilbert’s Farewell Address from Contemporary Poetry Review
I will not warn against poetry-industrial complexes, fulminate against the party system (so rankly evident in much poetry culture), or abjure privileged monopolies . . . .
Full StoryMan-Eating Comedy Shark and Sarcastic Cat
For Halloween, Lynn and I went to see Johnny Showcase with Lefty Lucy and Martha Graham Cracker at MarBar. I dressed as a comedy shark, who tells bad jokes and eats those who doesn’t laugh. Because her mermaid costume failed to come together at the last minute, Lynn decided to dress up as a cat, the old standby. Being fairly sarcastic to being with, she made a great Sarcastic Cat.
Full StoryFlying Off the Screen: Observations from the Golden Age of the American Video Game Arcade
In the fall of 2007 I posted this light-hearted memoir of my youth misspent in video game arcades, from the book Gamers. I came across it recently and reread it for the first time since the book was published. I thought I’d share it again for readers new to the site.
Full Story“In-School Suspension” by Ernest Hilbert
My poem “In-School Suspension” is in the September 2010 issue of the New Criterion, on newstands now. You may click here to visit the online version of the poem at the magazine.
Full Story“SUCH ROOT SATISFACTION . . .”: SIGNED LIMITED TÊTE-BÊCHE EDITION OF THE SECOND BOOK BY DAVID YEZZI AND ERNEST HILBERT
SOLD OUT! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ORDERED A COPY
Full Story“The types and symbols of Eternity, / Of first and last, and midst, and without end,” or, Rocky Mountain High
In addition to giving a reading and delivering a critical paper out in Colorado, I found time to get out into some back country (though it would be more honest to say I was gently hauled out into it). The first day I climbed with poets Charles Doersch and David Yezzi up to the Arapaho [...]
Full Story“Well Known Antiquarian?”: Hilbert Name-Dropped in Forbes Article about Chelsea Clinton’s Pre-Wedding Shopping
I just returned from many mountains and martinis in Colorado to find I’ve been cited as a “well known antiquarian” by Forbes. I’ve rarely encountered anyone described as an “antiquarian” outside of an H.P. Lovecraft story. Strange. I hear my colleagues had a good laugh about that over cocktails on the terrace last week. Have [...]
Full StoryPimp My Axe!: Sixty Sonnets Guitar
An E-Verser sends in a picture of a Sixty Sonnets sticker that made it onto a guitar. Rock on!
Full StoryOff to the Rockies!
By the time this post goes live I will have finished a late-night “beer” reading at Earth and managed to get up at 5AM to fly out for Denver. I may be yonder over your head at this very moment. From Denver I’ll be driven by a genuine madman five hours up to Crested Butte/Gunnison, [...]
Full Story“I’ll get ballistic on occasion when I realize more people know the work of J. Lo than the work of Alice Munro”: Ernest Hilbert Interviews Novelist Lewis Robinson
I interviewed Lewis Robinson back in 2003, when his collection of short stories, Officer Friendly, was published. The interview originally appeared in nowCulture magazine. Ernest Hilbert: Most of the stories in Officer Friendly are set in areas like Point Allison and Cuxabexis. Can you talk a bit about the settings? Lewis Robinson: Setting is critical [...]
Full StoryErnest Hilbert interviews novelist Jennifer Egan about her book Look at Me
Jennifer Egan’s new book A Visit from the Goon Squad is reviewed on the cover of this week’s New York Times Book Review. Here’s an interview I conducted with Ms. Egan back in 2002 on her best-selling novel Look at Me. Ernest Hilbert: What are your principal influences? Jennifer Egan: That’s such a hard question [...]
Full StoryLemmy, Vince Neil, and . . . Sixty Sonnets Rocking at the Rainbow Room on Sunset
An E-Verser sent this in: I thought you might like this. I was at the Rainbow in LA last week and saw this in the bathroom . . . ErnieErnest Hilbert is founder of E-Verse Radio.Website – Twitter – Facebook – More Posts
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