Word: barres
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...brink of going under," says Wiman--Poetry magazine begat a larger entity, more suited to wielding nine-figure sums, called the Poetry Foundation. The foundation needed somebody to run it who was equally at home serving art and Mammon, and they found what they were looking for in John Barr, who spent 18 years at Morgan Stanley before co-founding a boutique investment-banking firm on his own. During that time he also published six books of verse and taught in the writing program at Sarah Lawrence. "For me all the stuff I've experienced in the business world...
...small, sun-baked man, Barr is unusually smiley and energetic for a poet, and he set about his job with a distinctly unpoetic efficiency. Starting in February 2004, Barr commissioned a corporate-style study to find out who was reading poetry and who wasn't. Readings were hosted; prizes and fellowships were handed out; an elaborate, handsomely designed website was launched. Working with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation started Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry-recitation contest for high school students, which was won this May by one Amanda Fernandez of Washington on the strength...
...Barr also ruffled some feathers. A zealous and unembarrassed populist, he declared his determination to make poetry less morose and more entertaining. He endowed a post called the Children's Poet Laureate. He created the Mark Twain Poetry Award, "recognizing a poet's contribution to humor in American poetry." Barr also published several essays criticizing the state of American poetry. He accused it of "intellectual and spiritual stagnation." He called out poets for being addicted to lyric poetry (as opposed to, say, epic or satirical poetry) and for being obsessed with formal experimentation. He dissed M.F.A. programs for churning...
...idea that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms, it could provoke a backlash in the opposite direction. "If the court upholds the D.C. handgun ban, it would be a real tsunami, a very energizing event for Second Amendment enthusiasts," says former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia and N.R.A. board member. "It would highlight the importance of maintaining the presidency to get good Second Amendment judges." In other words, when they go to war before the Supreme Court, both gun-rights and gun-control advocates should be careful what they wish...
...Bruce Fein, Chairman Richard Viguerie David Keene Bob Barr John Whitehead