I’m typing a book-length poem on a roll of adding-machine paper. I’m using a manual typewriter, an Underwood.
Music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au
Luke Kennard’s Notes on the Sonnets, a collection of prose poems responding to Shakespeare’s sonnets, won the Forward prize for best collection, beating other nominees in a competition judged by poet Shivanee Ramlochan.
Kennard said he started writing Sonnet 66 at a party and then got hooked on writing reactions to all 154 Sonnets.
Caleb Femi won the prize for best first collection for his work Poor, which explores the lives and times of a Peckham estate.
Femi’s debut book grabbed the judges from the first page. Nicole Sealey won the Forward prize for best single poem for Pages 22-29, an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure.
Ramlochan praised the poem, saying that it shows there are poems embedded in all sorts of documents, and the jury said the poems showed how the poetic imagination can be bold, limitless, and reach deep into our lives.
“The Past is Always New, The Future is Always Nostalgic: Photographer Daido Moriyama” is the title of a documentary about renowned photographer Daido Moriyama. As a young photographer, his work focused on fashion, but as he matured, it transcended those boundaries and he became known worldwide. This documentary offers an intimate look into the life of a genuine artist.
His work has brought many national and international awards. In 2019, he won the Hasselblad Award, which is considered the “Nobel Prize of Photography.” He is past 80 years old and still going strong and inspiring photographers young and old.
This documentary follows Moriyama as he photographs the streets of Japan. We see how his work is born and watch him interact with bookbinders and editors as he reissues his groundbreaking 1968 photo book, Japan A Photo Theater. It’s a fascinating look at the everyday life of Japan’s most acclaimed photographer.
By the way, the camera Daido is using in this film is a Nikon Coolpix S7000.
This clip is from the CBS 1949 Studio One production of the Dashiell Hammett short story “Two Sharp Knives.” Hammett’s cameo is that of the character Slim, not listed in the cast of characters. This is the only film footage of Hammett I’ve been able to find. I’m sure there must be more.
I had a short communication from Dashiell Hammett’s granddaughter, and she believes this is the only known recording of her grandfather’s voice.
This is the only filmed interview I’ve been able to find of the great poet Karl Shapiro. It’s sourced from a 16mm film by Karl Shapiro and Arthur Hoyle, Santa Monica, CA: Pyramid Films, 1976.
This is a clip from a trove of 8mm home movies I inherited from my parents. This one is from 1958 and features my twin brother and me, along with our sister, dancing to American Bandstand on the television.
Billie Nardozzi writes poems every week for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s for love, not money: He pays for the privilege of getting them into print.
