A second volume of poetry by Howe, What the Living Do: Poems (1997), is a collection of forty-eight poems about what the living do after the death of a loved one. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented, "The tentative transformation of agonizing, slow-motion loss into redemption is Howe's signal achievement in this wrenching second collection." The reviewer added that the poet's consciousness becomes consumed with thoughts of a brother dying of AIDS and travels over the territory of both everyday life and the childhood memories of the poet. The Publishers Weekly critic praised the book calling the poems "rigorously crafted in their long, open lines of taut, precise language," and added that the collection revealed Howe's "power as a metaphysician for the coming century of fractured faith."
Tomas Tranströmer was born in Stockholm in 1931. A translator, psychologist, entomologist, and classical pianist, he has become the most influential and revered Swedish poet of his generation. He is the author of twelve full-length collections of poetry, most recently Den stora gåtan (The Great Enigma) in 2004. Tranströmer's books have appeared in hundreds of editions in over fifty languages. Among his many honors are Germany's Petrarch Prize, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Bellman Prize, the Bonnier Award for Poetry, and the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize. In 2008 Green Integer will release his book The Sorrow Gondola, translated by Michael McGriff with Mikaela Grassl. Tranströmer lives with his wife Monica in Stockholm.
On April 1, 2008, the Academy of American Poets held its sixth annual benefit, Poetry & The Creative Mind, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Some of America's leading artists, scholars, and public figures participated in this extraordinary evening celebrating the role of contemporary poetry in American culture. Poetry & The Creative Mind kicks off National Poetry Month, established by the Academy in 1996 and now the largest literary celebration in the world.
Group items tagged 
