On Sunday, December 3rd, 2023, The Schuylkill Valley Journal had a big arts afternoon, celebrating their Winter issue, which features artist Mateus Costa and, as poet, this guy John Timpane. Several poets appearing in the issue read their work, as did this guy Timpane. As a little something special, I asked Rich Darla Tarpinian to come along and play a few bossa pieces with me. Thanks to SVJ fearless leader Peter Krok, poetry editor Jane Edna Mohler, layout designer Ed Hart, and all the folks who make the SVJ go. And also, thanks to everyone who attended, including Robert Zaller and Hayden Saunier. What an occasion!
Folks ask me, knowing I was once an Englit prof, "OK, if I want to get into Shakespeare, finally, and good, what books do I get?" Three, I say: (1) The Riverside Shakespeare, although most of the contempo major-house collecteds are fine. Don't get an old one with print you can't read. I like the prefatory essays and the most recent revision a lot, and it was the anthology I taught from the longest; (2) Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt, a very smart, wonderfully written bio that, while a trifle controversial, is just great; and (3) Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets, by Don Paterson. Has to be the smartest, wonderfullest, most sidesplitting book of litcrit I ever read -- and mostly exactly spot-on. You have to order this, but there are U.S. sellers on Amazon.
OTHER THING: If you have the cash, get the BBC TV series and watch all the plays. They're not uniformly amazingly fantastic, but many are, and they make good watching-while-you-read.
