I taught a little class last night to a group of undergrads about
freelance writing and book reviewing. Which

makes me think about the
AWP panel I'm leading for the NBCC at next year's conference called
"The Practice and Purpose of Poetry Reviewing." What I always say to
creative writing students when I talk about book reviewing is that
they're entering a landscape vastly different from the one I entered,
and I only entered a few years ago. Obviously, the Internet has
rapidly and irrevocably changed the way books--and anything--are talked
about. We now live in an age where some large segment of
"professional" book criticism takes place in a medium somewhere between
the customer comment and the fancy print book review. Literally,
everyone's a critic, if they want to be and can type.
But then the AWP panel will be specifically about poetry reviewing--why
and how it's done. I'm often asking poetry publicists what a review
means to them--does it help sell books in a meaningful way? Then I
wonder what other reviewers think. To what extent are poetry reviews
there to keep the art form in line? What's the point of a negative
review?
I'm curious whether readers of this blog read many reviews, especially
of poetry, and whether they write them, either on blogs or for print or
online lit mags or newspapers or wherever. Why do you do it--reading
or writing?
I'm groggy today--it's just too early, no matter what time it is. So
no album today. I'm too grumpy to listen to music. ugh. Tomorrow is
my birthday. Talk to you then.