The March issue of Poetry is out. On the cover is a banana peel, not unlike that vaudevillean trope we appropriated for our 2005 Humor! Seminar. Also on the cover, the name of Terrance Hayes, who presented at this year’s Seminar, New Voices. Peel it open, and find five new poems and a brief interview with Terrance. If you haven’t checked out the website of the Poetry Foundation (publishers of Poetry) yet, do yourself a solid and go there now. The site is just part of what they’ve done with the $100 million given them by Ruth Lilly in 2002, and is loaded with more-or-less easily searchable content. For starters, while you’re waiting for our own podcast of Terrance Hayes’s reading, pour two and listen to his Poetry reading of “Cocktails with Orpheus.” We can also recommend their
archives for beautiful slideshows of early editions of the magazine featuring the work of such great poets (and KWLS alum) as Robert Creeley and John Ashbery. This is one of our favorite literary websites, and one we’ll be paying attention to as we expand our own audio and visual offerings. $100 million, anyone?
Slip into Poetry
Key West Literary Seminar welcomes readers and writers to this subtropical island city. Our flagship program is the annual Seminar, a four-day event that explores a unique literary theme each January, where readers from around the world enjoy presentations by some of the best writers of our time. In our Writers’ Workshop Program, also in January, writers of all levels meet in small groups with esteemed faculty to share their work and explore the craft of writing. A Scholarship Program reduces fees for teachers and librarians and recognizes the work of outstanding emerging writers. Exclusive recordings from the Seminar spanning thirty years are available in the Audio Archive, while our online journal, Littoral, features news, essays, photographs, and other resources that document Key West’s rich literary history.
A diversity of life thrives in the littoral zone — a thin strip of coastline between high and low watermarks. As the operating metaphor for our online journal, it refers to that part of Key West routinely overrun by the tide of literature and to the rich life of letters in this island city. Here you’ll find event coverage from our team of writers and photographers; news and updates about upcoming opportunities; and rare images from historic collections, interviews, and all manner of report from Key West’s life of letters.