Marvin Bell

Marvin BellMarvin Bell is an American poet. He is Flannery O’Connor Professor of Letters (Emeritus) at Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and was the first Poet Laureate of the state of Iowa. Marvin has been one of my most influential mentors.

Innovation and Craft in Visual Art

Innovation and Craft: A Trans-Atlantic Theory of Poetry

“Poetry must be as new as foam, and as old as the rock” -Emerson Dichotomies are often false but useful. Contemplating the similarities and differences between British and American poetry, having steeped myself in both for some time now, I have been slicing my experiences as a reader along two axes: innovation and craft. Ancestors …

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The Film-Poem

Poetry is both visual and auditory, which is why it so easily blends with other media. Songs and illustrated stories issue forth from prehistory. The twentieth-century coinage “concrete poetry” refers to the arrangement of words in print for visual impact, an art as old as printing itself. And spoken word and rap music explore the …

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