POETRY
Something old, something new: this winter, look for "New and Selected" volumes from several established poets. Poet laureate KAY RYAN delivers 200 delicately crafted pieces in The Best of It (Grove, March 3); EDWARD HIRSCH shows off 30 years of visually acute writing in The Living Fire (Knopf, March 10). In The Apple Trees at Olema (Ecco, March 23), Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner ROBERT HASS continues to reckon gracefully with the world. And SHEROD SANTOS pulls from five previous titles to give us the harsh truths of The Intricated Soul (Norton, March 1).
In Morning Haiku (Beacon, February 1), her first new book in more than 10 years, SONIA SANCHEZ celebrates significant African-Americans in spare, pointed lyrics. And among the younger voices worth catching: the steely-eyed JULIE CARR (100 Notes on Violence, Ahsahta Press, January 15); Jamaican-born MARK MCMORRIS (Entrepôt, Coffee House Press, February 1), director of the Lannan Literary Programs at Georgetown; and ALEX LEMON (Fancy Beasts, Milkweed, March 1), who always delivers visceral punches (his preceding title was called Hallelujah Blackout). Note that Lemon has just published the wrenching Happy: A Memoir (Scribner, December 29), which is about his downward spin after a series of brain bleeds.
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- Coffeenomics
In 50 states and 49 countries, the experience is the same: a placid sense of place, air suffused with the rich aromatics of fresh-brewed espresso. Customers dollop cream and sprinkle brown sugar into their drinks. Behind the counter, green-clad baristas grind beans and steam milk, smiling as they take orders in a made-up language.
- Video: Our 10 most popular videos from 2009
The most popular videos from the Phoenix in 2009
- Reading is fundamentalist
In 2009, liberals held firm control of the presidency, the US Senate, and the US House of Representatives. But there was one realm where conservatives dominated: the New York Times bestseller list.
- Interview: Raj Patel
"The opposite of consumption is not thrift but generosity; if you look at happiness studies, we are happiest when we give things away rather than when we accumulate or when we don't spend."
- Heart keeps beating
Storytelling is largely about character, and writer Thomas Cobb came up with a doozy when he conceived Bad Blake.
- Interview: Ozzy Osbourne
Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."
- Excerpt: Evening’s Empire by BIll Flanagan
In this chapter, "The Drugs Don't Work," aging rock star Emerson Cutler and his manager, Jack Flynn, are seeking inspiration — and desperately trying to jumpstart his career.
- After Fort Thunder, the zine lives
Last week, friends of the zine Taffy Hips gathered at Ada Books on Westminster Street to celebrate the sixth issue: robot comics, prints of giant tsunami waves, and an interview with Chicago-based cartoonist Anya Davidson.
- Spose, radio star
Who knew? The era of the radio hit isn't completely over. Maybe five times recently, someone's asked, "Dude, have you heard that Spose song?"
- The Soft Pack | The Soft Pack
This Los Angeles foursome first emerged in 2008 as the Muslims, a name they elected to change after they grew disgusted with and exhausted by all the ignorant — and often racist — bullshit that came out of people's mouths during shows/interviews/conversations.
- Toro Y Moi | Causers Of This
Toro y Moi's debut is a leap into a tactile æsthetic where surreal and sometimes unstable atmospheres lure listeners into simple, soulful songs.
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