The DE Index
Number of reviews of finalists for the 2009 National Book Award for Poetry published by the New York Times: 0
Number of poetry reviews published by the NYT in 2010 so far: 2
Number of those reviews dedicated to Tony Hoagland’s Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty: 2
UPDATE: A few more, for fun:
Number of feature reviews of poetry books in the New York Times Book Review in 1990: 25
Number of feature reviews of poetry books in the NYTBR in 2009: 12
Number of those books whose authors or translators were alive at the time of the review: 9
Number of poetry reviews in the daily New York Times in 1990: 1
Number of poetry reviews in the daily NYT in 2009: 1
Number of those reviews dedicated to authors not named John Updike: 0
Number of weekday reviews of poetry in the NYT since 2000: ?
Dunno. But here’s a baseline: in 1990, the NYTBR did feature reviews (i.e. not chronicles, shorts, etc.) of 1,125 books. 742 of those were nonfiction, 358 were fiction, 25 were poetry.
When we finally meet, BB, I’ll tell you the story about my dinner with Harvey Shapiro.
Whatever you think about Hoagland, look. The NYTBR is one thing, Dwight Garner sneaking poetry into the daily paper is a whole nother.
Yeah, no, that wasn’t a dig at Hoagland–or at Garner, who’s been mixing up the daily reviews quite nicely. The point is just, you know, share the nifty. There’s a whole world out there.
(Who dat?)
Somewhat related, though as usual, not quite– I’ve got a somewhat eccentric 78-line poem about Tony Hoagland and Dean Young (in three parts, and in rhyming couplets) appearing in the second issue of Hot Gun!, which I think is due out this month.
I suppose it’s kind of a “review.”