Speaking of Hamlet, I would like to point out a Canadian television import that’s currently seized my attention and dominated my Netflix queue.

Slings and Arrows follows a Shakespearean theater festival reeling after the scandalous on-stage nervous breakdown of their star Hamlet, Geoffrey Tenant (dazzlingly played by Paul Gross) and, later, the untimely death-by-Ham-delivery-truck of their longtime Artistic Director Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette). Geoffrey reluctantly returns to take the position of Artistic Director, and finds himself haunted by the nagging ghost of his departed frienemy as he prepares to direct the very production which sent him into psychological breakdown - Hamlet. MORE »

Kay Ryan was announced as the 16^th poet laureate of the United States today. Often compared to Emily Dickinson for her semi-reclusive nature and witty skepticism of the outside world, Ryan has been teaching remedial English part-time at the College of Marin in Kentfield, CA for over 30 years. Her introverted nature and accessibility make her an exciting choice for laureate. Ryan, dually skeptical of both writer’s conferences and collaborative work in general, has noted an interest in doing something in celebration of the library (Congress’ or otherwise). “Maybe I’ll issue library cards to everyone,” she quipped.

Part of what makes Ryan’s poetry so accessible is its brevity and meditation on the more common aspects of the human experience. Often utilizing aviary metaphors, the sentiments in Ryan’s poetry are playfully witty and easily relatable. She employs irregular rhyming schemes and a characteristically sparse style.

“An almost empty suitcase, that’s what I want my poems to be, few things,” Ms. Ryan told the NY Times. Here are a choice few of her many poems, which have been published in six collections and boast numerous awards including fellowships from both the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as three Pushcart Prizes.

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And just in case someone were to challenge that fact, the good people at ArtGarfunkel.com have posted a list of every book he read from 1968-2007. I mean, wow. He even has a highlighted favorites list. Click here to see the whole thing.

Of all the books I’ve borrowed, there’s one book that holds a seminal place within my personal canon. Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash has not only made me friends (there’s something about the idea of a city franchise that’s an instant bonder with new acquaintances) but it actually got me my first job (the magazine was doing a story on Second Life, a virtual reality program inspired by the cyberpunk novel). The book was slow to start and the ending was close to nonsensical, but everything in the middle was nothing short of genius and I would be lying if I denied that Stephenson holds a special place in my heart.

Above is a video of Stephenson giving a lecture on literary genres at Gresham College in London last May. It’s a pretty interesting topic and if you’re a “SF kind of person” you will get a kick out of Stephenson’s referral to anything not of the SF world as the “mundane”.

[Neal Stephenson Lecture on Genres]
(via BoingBoing via Beyond the Beyond)