For poet Sharon Olds, liberty and responsibility are a blessing and jinx. They’re a tightrope walk in New York City, or in New Hampshire, a log across the brook where one does a little windmilling in the middle. Life wouldn’t be the joyous hell it is without testing one’s feet, without a little exploratory swing and sway. Olds’ new collection of poems, “Stag’s Leap” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), performs just such a literary transit. At 71, she’s publishing work she lived through years ago. Clearly she’s reached the other side, wiser and happier. We’re lucky to have her join us in rural New Hampshire when she’s not teaching in NYC.

In her new novel “Blessed and Cursed Alike,” Kiarna Boyd dispatches motorcycle messengers to help readers cross boundaries between reality and imagination

Local artist Kiarna Boyd’s first novel, “Blessed and Cursed Alike,” is a murder mystery/urban fantasy about the disappearance of a close-knit group of hard living, magic-practicing motorcycle couriers in a city that is part London, part dark metropolis from the Universe Next Door. Likewise, talking with Boyd about her work and her art is like discovering an ancient artifact from a buried tomb and realizing there is a lot more to reality than you ever thought possible.

Fans won’t have to wait long to hear Portsmouth’s newly crowned poet laureate read her poetry. Kimberly Cloutier Green is celebrating the release of her new book, “The Next Hunger,” at RiverRun Bookstore on Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m., and she’ll read at the Poetry Hoot on Wednesday, May 1 at 7 p.m.

‘Notes on a Killing’ is the newest release in a series of true-crime tales co-authored by New Hampshire journalists Kevin Flynn and Rebecca Lavoie

Their new book is set in Goshen, a you-can’t-get-there-from-here town in Sullivan County. “Notes on a Killing” opens with the disappearance of Pen Meyer, not long after she helped a friend leave an abusive relationship with a married man. Police had little to work with: no blood, no DNA, no body.

Charles Simic conjures up this interior cast of characters from a lifetime of crafting poems. These ten populate a single stanza near the end of his most recent book, “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012.” They’re a scant handful of the roles he and his characters play in this 50-year compendium. The collection samples broadly from more than 13 of his 20-plus poetry volumes. Including memoirs and translations, Simic has published over 60 books.

A few weeks before his death, Walter was still talking up a new series of poems, of which he was several in. As well as a forward he was hoping to pen for a gathering of essays and reviews. In another visit, he shifted two napkins on a coffee table, as if they were an invaluable freight, telling me how he had had been thinking in less linear terms, more spatial.

Newfields author Robert J. Begiebing brings the past into the present  with “The Turner Erotica”

“The Turner Erotica” offers something for everyone: madness, suicide, obsession, gun and knife fights cheek-to-jowl with art history, aesthetics, and yes, a fair dollop of erotic raciness as well.
The plot concerns itself with the legend surrounding the fiery destruction of a series of sensual paintings and sketches done by Britain’s most famous landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, by the hand of his most ardent champion, the writer and intellectual John Ruskin.

The teens who read their poetry at Teen Beat Night in April, backed by performer David Amram, are unlikely to understand exactly or fully his contributions to American music. But in this once-in-lifetime opportunity to perform with the 82-year-old accompanist, they will discover a like-minded and still-youthful spirit.

Thousands of organizations participate in National Poetry Month through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events. Plenty is happening right here on the Seacoast: famous poets will read, new anthologies will be launched, and the poet laureate torch will be passed.

The Jazzmouth Poetry and Jazz Festival is on hiatus this spring, but with the blessing of the committee, Portsmouth Poet Laureate John-Michael Albert will host “Jazzmouth Lite,” a Sunday brunch upstairs at the Press Room on April 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

When Bill Masen wakes up in the hospital one morning, he finds the hospital staff peculiarly unresponsive. In fact, all he can hear from the hospital corridors is moaning and sobbing. With bandages on his eyes, he can’t see what’s gone wrong, and he agonizes over whether or not to take his treatment into his own hands and remove his bandages. Haunted by the terrifying sounds he hears, he finally peels off his bandages and finds a world in collapse. Sound familiar? You bet it does, since that’s essentially the opening scene from Danny Boyle’s film “28 Days Later,” and, for that matter, the comic book (and later AMC series) “The Walking Dead.”

Joe Hill's comic book series “Locke & Key” enters the homestretch

I didn’t read “Locke & Key” for a long time. The comic series, written by Exeter’s Joe Hill (“Heart Shaped Box,” “Horns”) and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, premiered in February of 2008 and sold out its first issue in one day. People like this book. People love this book. People acted incredulous for years as I kept making weaker and weaker excuses as to why I wasn’t reading this book.

For a certain generation of adult nerds, Cory Doctorow is best known as a copyright reform and anti-DRM activist, a journalist, a science-fiction author, and one of the editors/bloggers at BoingBoing.net. But for the last few years, much of Doctorow’s fiction has been tailored for young adult readers—his novels “Little Brother,” “For The Win,” and “Pirate Cinema” all feature teen protagonists who use technology to stand up to greedy corporations, the relentless security state, and other nefarious evildoers. His latest novel, “Homeland,” is a sequel to 2008’s “Little Brother,” and its release is the occasion that will bring him to RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth on Saturday, Feb. 23. Protagonist Marcus Yallow is back and this time is in possession of a thumb drive containing a cache of documents that could expose some serious corporate and government dirty tricks.

The most frequently asked question I get, when introduced as Portsmouth’s poet laureate, is “What does a poet laureate do?” People understand that being “poet laureate” must mean something important. After all, the fancy word “laureate” is attached to it. But they cannot imagine what a “poet” laureate would do. “Sit around and write poetry? That can’t be right.”

at 70, the best-selling novelist and Exeter native returns to the Seacoast

“I try to create people I love, then hope you will too, then decide which of them will suffer,” said John Irving, speaking to a full house in the warm Music Hall on a cold night. He quoted often and easily from many of his works, as if he had just been having a conversation with these characters in another room.

Got something to get off your chest? Turn it into art, then spin it at the open mike. In Portsmouth, the hosts of Beat Night are looking for participation from poets interested in performing their written words in improvisational concert with Groove Bacteria at the monthly jazz and poetry session at the Press Room. In Dover, Primal Tongue, a monthly open mike at Adelle’s Coffeehouse, is seeking prose readers ready to read short pieces of fiction or non-fiction. Featured readers get 40 minutes to read a piece of their choice.

Citing personal commitments that will temporarily take them away from the series this season, co-founders of the storytelling program “A Winter’s Tale” announced that the show will take a break this winter.

Community members are invited to submit names for the next Portsmouth Poet Laureate, whose job it will be to “build community through poetry.” Nominations for the new poet laureate are due by Feb. 15.

True story! Fourteen men were tossed into the night when the Nottingham Galley broke apart in a winter storm on Boon Island off York in Dec. 11, 1710. Clad in little more than damp linen and cotton, sheltered by small pieces of canvas fashioned into a makeshift tent on a wave-swept rock measuring just 300 by 700 feet, these men endured the longest nights of the year buffeted by wind, cold, hunger and ailment. With no source of heat or food and little hope of rescue from the mainland six miles distant, most just lay huddled together on the jagged crags of the rock, a surface often washed across with seawater and too inhospitable for even a single plant to take root. The turning of the New Year passed with little hope.

Author Kevin Phillips, soon to visit New Hampshire’s original capital, explains why 1775 was the real year of our nation’s birth.

Among the many historically significant happenings of 1775 was a shifting of New Hampshire’s capital city from Portsmouth to Exeter. Portsmouth had been the colonial capital, but the Patriots decided to shake things up. It was an example of their increasingly brazen attempts to defy the British government and establish their own American identity. “The revolution, in a lot of colonies, was a revolution of trying to destroy the previous political power centers,” said author Kevin Phillips.

Local author Dennis Nils discusses his debut novel, combining modern politics with epic myth.

The central protagonist of local author Dennis Nils’ debut novel, “BWLF,” is Dan Morgan, a Democratic candidate for governor of Alabama and an expert in cognitive disorders. In addition to running against a popular local Republican, Morgan is forced to contend with a trio of murderous monsters, including a giant bird, a vicious sea serpent, and a mighty Neanderthal.

Author and CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin talks about the Supreme Court’s swing to the right, and its chief justice’s battle with President Obama.

The Supreme Court of the United States currently consists of six men and three women—the first time in history there have been three women justices. The court includes six Catholics and three Jews—the first time none of the justices have been Protestants. But more important than that trivia, said Jeffrey Toobin, is the fact that the court currently includes five Republicans and four Democrats. Those numbers, he said, are what defines the court today more than anything else.

Author Justin Cronin returns to Portsmouth with ‘The Twelve,’ the sequel to his apocalyptic vampire epic ‘The Passage.’

Cronin, a New England native now living in Texas, actually practiced firing a rifle in order to write the part—a skill he learned from his dentist. “For ‘The Passage’ I learned an awful lot about hand guns, and let me tell you, going to the shooting range on your lunch hour is a really good time,” he said. “To write this book, I had to learn to be a sniper. I had to learn to shoot a high-powered rifle.”

Hallie Ephron tells why mystery writers have more fun

Hallie Ephron knows what readers want. The popular author writes mysteries, but also dissects mysteries in reviews for the Boston Globe and coaches mystery writing students in workshops and conferences. Her book “Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock ’Em Dead with Style,” published in 2005, is a favorite on the craft of writing a mystery. The Wire talked to Ephron about why we fall for mysteries.

“Portsmouth: A Love Story” follows Severine Champagne, a business woman who, following her intuition, moves to Portsmouth and becomes absorbed in its rich history. She also becomes romantically involved with Peter Nicholas, a successful real estate developer with a turbulent past in the city. As their relationship develops, their lives take unexpected turns, both painful and enlightening.