James Agee, “Two Songs on the Economy of Abundance”

Temperance Note: and Weather Prophecy

Watch well The Poor in this late hour
Before the wretched wonder stop:
Who march along a thundershower
And never touch a drop.

Red Sea

How long this way: that everywhere
We make our march the water stands
Apart and all our wine is air
And all our ease the emptied sands?

From James Agee: Selected Poems, the latest volume in the Library of America’s American Poets Project, which reminds us that for all the other types of writing Agee practiced—from fiction to journalism to film criticism—he considered himself a poet first.

Other Agee poems online include “Permit Me Voyage” and Sunday: Outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee.”

4 September 2008 | poetry |

Three International Literary Sensations in One Hour-long Interview

clockwise from top left: Peixoto, Grimbert, and Agualusa

In addition to the official season premiere of “Beatrice @ the Merc” later this month, I’ve been invited to host another literary event at the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction. On Sept. 16, I’ll be leading a discussion with three internationally acclaimed authors—José Eduardo Agualusa (The Book of Chameleons), José Peixeto (The Implacable Order of Things), and Philippe Grimbert (Memory)—about the ways that history and memory come into play in their fiction. I’m digging into the reading now—and looking forward to planning out some interesting questions for our hour-long conversation.

So that’s the Mercantile Library (17 East 47th St.), at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 16. I hope to see you there!

(UPDATE: This event is now co-sponsored by Words without Borders, an online magazine for literature in translation that undertakes to promote international communication through publication of the world’s best writing. Its monthly publications include fiction, nonfiction, poetry and contextual essays, all available for free online.)

3 September 2008 | events |