HARPER

Michael S. Harper, Rhode Island’s first poet laureate (1988-1993) and a professor of English at Brown since 1970, will be awarded the prestigious 2008 Frost Medal, from the Poetry Society of America, for lifetime achievement in American poetry, the university has announced. Harper will receive the award and deliver the Frost Medal Lecture April 21, during the PSA’s 98th Annual Awards Ceremony, at the National Arts Club in New York City.

“I consider Robert Frost to be the greatest poet in the American language from the 20th century — and one of my favorites,” Harper is quoted as saying. “To simply be the recipient of an award with his name on it is a great, great honor.”

Harper, 70, was twice nominated for the National Book Award and has received many other honors over the years. He has published 10 poetry collections, most recently Selected Poems (ARC Publications, 2002) and Songlines in Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems (2000). A new poetry collection, Use Trouble, will be coming out this fall from The University of Illinois Press.

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NBC News is apologizing again — this time for Jane Fonda. The 70-year-old actress used a vulgar slang term on the Today show yesterday while talking about the play The Vagina Monologues. Fonda is appearing in a 10th-anniversary performance.

Fonda said she was asked to perform a monologue with a slang term for vagina as the title — and Fonda used the term itself on the air.

About 10 minutes later, co-host Meredith Vieira told viewers that Today and Fonda apologized for the remark.

NBC has recently apologized for comments made by Chris Matthews and David Shuster.