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The article reports that the papers of poet Wesley McNair have been acquired by Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The papers acquired includes eight volumes of poetry, two collections of essays, and four edited anthologies. The collection of McNair is a rich, eclectic body of materials that contains early writings, manuscript drafts, first appearances, photographs, and extensive correspondence with literary peers. Furthermore, the McNair papers comprising more than 100 linear feet will continue to grow through annual accruals.

Pavel Gataiantu is a fascinating poet who transformed his unique multicultural experience into true literary masterpieces. As a representative of the Romanian minority in Serbia, he transferred the challenges and difficulties, as well as the magic of living in a clash of cultures to the pages of the poetry volume "Poems from Novi Sad". All this is expressed in a beautiful but direct manneremotions and thoughts are deep and naked, nothing is concealed or unnecessarily embellished. The following paper will analyze Gataiantu's thoughts about his homeland, experience of living in exile, as well as his reflections on the cultural influence of the distant United States of America contained in his sophisticated poetry. This analysis will help the reader of his poetry answer the question about the author's cultural self-positioning in the face of living in the multicultural Serbian province of Vojvodina on the one hand and in the world highly influenced by the United States on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents literary criticism which comments on the life and works of poet John Clare. Four volumes of Glare's poems appeared during his lifetime. The first volume appeared in 1820 and was reprinted three times during the year. Clare's working life was very difficult. He was a ploughboy and worked as a lime-burner and a nurseryman. He was also a casual agricultural labor. Often Clare did not have enough money to buy paper on which to write poems. Critics called Clare "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" and celebrated him as one of Nature's simple children warbling heath and meadow notes wild. Poverty pressed him down throughout his life. But the publication of his first book in 1820 gave him some financial support. Clare's work reflected his laboring origins and contributed to his reputation as a peasant. Clare used little punctuation, and his grammar, spelling, and capitalization were "highly irregular." Poet Jonathan Bate believes the greatest fault in Clare's poetry is an excess of description. According to Bate, only by numbering the streaks on a tulip can a writer create place.

This article offers advice on writing poetry. The author recommends that poems should always sound better on paper. Title selection is important in building the character of the poem. The form must match the theme of the poem. Poets must not attempt to create a poem without inspiration.

Presents an interview with poet and writer Richard Howard on various issues. Simultaneity in the publication of the periodicals "Inner Voices: Selected Poems 1963-2003" and "Paper Trail: Selected Prose 1965-2003"; Views about fame; Reaction to the nature of workshops.

The article presents information on the various papers published in the periodical "Trinity Seminary Review." In one of the papers the author presents information on poetry from a group of Lutheran poets. Another paper presents a profile of Richie Furay, rock star turned pastor, who spoke recently on contemporary Christian Music. In a paper the author introduces Lisa Dahill, a new member of Trinity's faculty teaching in the areas of Worship and Christian Spirituality as well as in the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

This article offers advice on ways poets seeking publication can please editors to whom they are sending work. Tips are offered on ways to increase the chances of being selected for publication, such as using high quality paper, affixing adequate postage, and researching the tastes of a particular group of editors.

All poets, if they are any good,'' Charles Simic has said, ''tend to stand apart from their literary age.'' The key phrase here, of course, is ''if they are any good''; average poets don't just stand within their age, they compose it. But we sometimes talk as if poets are exceptions not simply when they write well, but because they write at all. According to this way of thinking, the art form demands such devotion to one's individuality that every poet, no matter how lowly, is a kind of outsider -- a Cheese Who Stands Alone. This perception frequently finds its way into depictions of poets in popular culture; it also emerges in the vehemence with which poets themselves regularly declare their opposition to labels, categories, schools, allegiances, booster clubs, car pools, intramural softball teams and so on. Yet when everyone is busy standing apart, how is it possible to stand out? What does real independence look like? Possibly something like the work of Thom Gunn, whose new Selected Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, paper, $14) is edited by August Kleinzahler. Gunn, who died in 2004, began his career as a hot young poet in England (he published his first book, ''Fighting Terms,'' when he was only 25) and was generally associated with the taut, plainspoken aesthetic favored by writers like Philip Larkin and Donald Davie. In 1954, he left England for San Francisco, where he eventually settled after studying with Yvor Winters at Stanford. Gunn embraced the city's bohemian lifestyle -- Edmund White called him ''the last of the commune dwellers . . . serious and intellectual by day and druggy and sexual by night'' -- and he grew increasingly interested in syllabics and free verse even as he continued to hone the metrical forms that distinguished his early career. He's possibly the only poet to have written a halfway decent quintain while on LSD, and he's certainly one of the few to profess genuine admiration for both Winters (the archformalist) and Allen Ginsberg (the arch . . . well, Allen Ginsberg). This is, even for the poetry world, a pretty odd background. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]