Punk poet, National Book Award winner, and Lavin speaker Patti Smith wrote the forward to a new reissue of Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell, to be published by New Directions Press, and featuring the original and iconic Alvin Lustig book cover design.

Patti Smith, the godmother of punk, will be collaborating with Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Logan to adapt her National Book Award-winning memoir, Just Kids, into a screenplay. Logan most recently won a Tony for Red, a play based on the life of Mark Rothko, another seminal New York artist.

Clockwise: Patti Smith, David Eagleman, Brian Eno, Philip Glass

Two giants of avant garde music are currently collaborating with two Lavin Agency speakers, in separate and high profile projects. It was recently announced that Patti Smith will collaborate with composer Philip Glass in the new year as part of his 75th birthday celebrations. The four-day event will take place in New York and will end with the premiere of Glass’ choral work, Another Look At Harmony. Also in the works is a full operatic rendition of Brian Eno’s score to neuroscientist David Eagleman’s novel, Sum, which is slated for production by London’s Royal Opera House in May 2012.

Lavin speaker, punk godmother, and National Book Award-winning author Patti Smith is in the new Jean-Luc Godard movie, Film Socialisme, which The Guardian says “has an undeniable originality.”

National Book Award winning author and Lavin speaker, Patti Smith, will release her career-spanning best-of compilation, Outside Society, on August 23.

We choose the great Patti Smith.

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The Shortlist

After a second round of nominations, the five finalists in Tumblr’s One Book - Non-fiction poll are:

Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell 
In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

To choose a winner, which will be read and discussed by the group, reblog this post, tag your own posts #onebooknonfiction or contact us via our ‘ask’ page.

It’s been a great few months for Lavin speaker Patti Smith. She won the National Book Award for her memoir, Just Kids, and was named to TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. And this past Sunday, the godmother of punk made her dramatic television debut, starring as a Columbia University Mythology professor on Law & Order: CI. “I knew that it wasn’t going to be simple,” Smith told TV Guide, “but it was a little more daunting than I expected.” Read the story and watch video of Smith’s performance here.

Today, Patti Smith, the godmother of punk and award-winning author of Just Kids, was named to the TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in the world. Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M.—and probably the biggest Patti Smith fan on the planet—wrote the entry. Here they are, above, singing ”E-Bow the Letter.” Stipe speak-sings the verses, Patti sings the lilting, angelic chorus. The most underrated song of 1996! Congrats, Patti.