Happy birthday to Samuel Hazo, who just turned 80 and is celebrating with a new poetry collection and novel this year.

He launched the International Poetry Forum in 1966 when he was teaching English at Duquesne University. Hazo retired 10 years ago with the title of McAnulty distinguished professor emeritus of English.

The poetry collection, Hazo's fourth since 1998, is "The Song of the Horse: A Selection of Poems 1958-2008" from Pittsburgh's Autumn House Press ($24.95).

It also published his previous poetry title, "A Flight to Elsewhere," three years ago.

The novel is "This Part of the World" (Syracuse University Press, $19.95), coming in September.

It's the story of a fictional dictator in the sorry tradition of Robert Mugabe and is Hazo's fifth work of fiction.

Added to the poetry and fiction output are Hazo's plays, essays and occasional opinion pieces for the Post-Gazette and other publications.

The forum's 43rd season begins Oct. 15 with Paul Muldoon. The founder himself will read Feb. 11.

Ups and downs of reviewing

The separate Sunday book review section of the Los Angeles Times goes out of existence next week, another victim of the incredible shrinking newspaper trade.

At the same time, National Public Radio announced it was expanding its stable of book reviewers to offer more commentary on its Web site.

The Times will be folding books into its Sunday Calendar section, but there's been no word if the space for reviews will be reduced or if the Internet pages will be expanded.

Over at NPR.org, the additional reviews will be accompanied by excerpts from the reviewed titles as well as chunks of interviews with authors and several fluffy features.

It's not a tit-for-tat tradeoff, though.

In its heyday, the L.A. Times book review was a serious, insightful publication that copied nobody, including The New York Times.

NPR simply isn't a serious contender to replace the newspaper as an outlet for skilled criticism or coverage of the finest authors.