Litblog Roundup 25

Litblog Roundup is a bi-weekly overview of topics, trends and highlights from the literary Internet. In this roundup: literary maps, writing about not writing, hip-hop poetics, and more.

Hit The Road, Jack

Whenever summertime comes around, the wanderlust starts to set in, particularly in the United States, where the road trip is something of a classic tradition, for tourists and literary types alike. Since it is summertime in the U.S., it’s no surprise that one of the very popular items on the literary web is a detailed map of literary road trips . (It goes well with the tour of literary bars that was popular earlier.) It’s also no surprise that On The Road makes it on the list, but you might be surprised at the other items there.

To Write or Not to Write

Here’s a fun question to ask a writer: what are you writing when you’re not writing? That is to say, do you have any side projects, or what do you do when you’re not writing. You can’t write all the time, but considering the many details in Anne Boyler’s excerpt, Not Writing , it’s remarkable that there’s any time left for writing at all.

Multi-Medium Multimedia

Books get adapted into movies. Comics get adapted into video games. But when was the last time you heard of poetry that doubles as visual art being translated onto the stage? The book Citizen: An American Lyric is probably the first time you’ve heard of that, right? Gray Wolf Press has an interview with the Creative Director “about the process of adapting a book that has had a transformative impact on how we talk about race in America .”

The Small Press Flea

Ordinarily I like to use the Litblog Roundup to cover things that are trending on the literary Internet, but now and again I also like to give a shout-out to some things that should be trending. The Small Press Flea was last weekend in Brooklyn, NY, and by all accounts it was a hit. An impressive selection of small presses were present, with readings throughout the day. Keep an eye out for this event next year, if you’re in the neighborhood.

How Hip-Hop Revolutionized American Poetry

As the author of the Litblog Roundup, I am always delighted to discover a lit blog that I can add to my collection. It’s only about a year old, but the Gawker Review of Books has me wondering: why wasn’t this blog around all along? ALong with a new anthology of work by the BreakBeat poets, the review has a recent interview with Nate Marshall, Kevin Coval, and Quraysh Ali Lansana on How Hip-Hop Revolutionized American Poetry . You could argue that Hip-Hop is American poetry, but either way the interview is a thought-provoking read, not just about the influence, but its history.