Stephen Burt, just back from Glasgow, co-editing book in honour of Helen Vendler

Stephen Burt, the poet and critic, an Associate Professor of English at Harvard, a contributor to Issue 6 of “The International Literary Quarterly”, and whose “Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry” was published earlier this month by Graywolf Press, has just returned from Glasgow where he admits in his blog that he was overwhelmed by the boundless hospitality of Michael Schmidt, a contributor to Issue 4 of the review. The month of May will witness no slacking of his literary activity with Burt, alongside co-editor Nick Halpern, publishing “Something Understood: Essays and Poetry for Helen Vendler”. The tribute to Vendler, published by the University of Virginia Press, will include, inter alia, contributions by John Ashbery, Frank Bidart, Rita Dove, Seamus Heaney, Carl Phillips and Charles Wright.