Download or read book The Xenotext written by Christian Bök and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Many artists seek to attain immortality through their art, but few would expect their work to outlast the human race and live on for billions of years. As Canadian poet Christian Bök has realized, it all comes down to the durability of your materials."—The Guardian Internationally best-selling poet Christian Bök has spent more than ten years writing what promises to be the first example of "living poetry." After successfully demonstrating his concept in a colony of E. coli, Bök is on the verge of enciphering a beautiful, anomalous poem into the genome of an unkillable bacterium (Deinococcus radiodurans), which can, in turn, "read" his text, responding to it by manufacturing a viable, benign protein, whose sequence of amino acids enciphers yet another poem. The engineered organism might conceivably serve as a post-apocalyptic archive, capable of outlasting our civilization. Book I of The Xenotext constitutes a kind of "demonic grimoire," providing a scientific framework for the project with a series of poems, texts, and illustrations. A Virgilian welcome to the Inferno, Book I is the "orphic" volume in a diptych, addressing the pastoral heritage of poets, who have sought to supplant nature in both beauty and terror. The book sets the conceptual groundwork for the second volume, which will document the experiment itself. The Xenotext is experimental poetry in the truest sense of the term. Christian Bök is the author of Crystallography (1994) and Eunoia (2001), which won the Griffin Poetry Prize. He teaches at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.
Download or read book Eunoia written by Christian Bök and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2008-06-11 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Eunoia’, which means ‘beautiful thinking’, is the shortest word in the English language to contain all five vowels. This book also contains them all, but never at the same time. Each of Eunoia’s five chapters is univocalic: that is, each chapter uses only one vowel. A triumphant feat, seven years in the making, this uncanny work of avant-garde literature is one of the most surprising and awe-inspiring books of the year. A challenging feat of composition and technical skill, Bök has worked this into a series of compelling narratives and rhythms.
Download or read book Pataphysics written by Christian Bok and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Pataphysics, the pseudoscience imagined by Alfred Jarry, has so far, because of its academic frivolity and hermetic perversity, attracted very little scholarly or critical inquiry, and yet it has inspired a century of experimentation. Tracing the place of 'pataphysics in the relationship between science and poetry, Christian Bök shows it is fundamental to the nature of the postmodern, and considers the work of Alfred Jarry and its influence on others. A long overdue critical look at a significant strain of the twentieth-century avant-garde, 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of Imaginary Science raises important historical, cultural, and theoretical issues germane to the production and reception of poetry, the ways we think about, write, and read it, and the sorts of claims it makes upon our understanding.
Download or read book Eunoia written by Christian Bök and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2005-10-14 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize (2002) Stunning and masterful in its execution, Eunoia is a five-chapter book in which each chapter is a univocal lipogram. The word ‘eunoia,’ which literally means ‘beautiful thinking,’ is the shortest word in English that contains all five vowels. Directly inspired by the Oulipo (l’Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), a French writers’ group interested in experimenting with different forms of literary constraint, Eunoia is a five-chapter book in which each chapteris a univocal lipogram – the first chapter has A as its only vowel, the second chapter E, etc. Each vowel takes on a distinct personality: the I is egotistical and romantic, the O jocular and obscene, the E elegiac and epic (including a retelling of the Iliad!). Stunning in its implications and masterful in its execution, Eunoia has developed a cult following, garnering extensive praise and winning the Griffin Poetry Prize. The original edition was never released in the U.S., but it has already been a bestseller in Canada and the U.K. (published by Canongate Books), where it was listed as one of the Times’ top ten books of 2008. This new edition features several new but related poems by Christian Bok and an expanded afterword. 'Eunoia is a novel that will drive everybody sane.' —Samuel Delany 'Eunoia takes the lipogram and rendersit obsolete.' —Kenneth Goldsmith 'A marvellous, musical texture of rhymes and echoes.' —Harry Mathews 'An exemplary monument for 21st century poetry.' —Charles Bernstein 'Bök's dazzling word games are the literary sensation of the year.' —The Times 'A resounding success ... brilliant.' —The Guardian 'Brilliant ... beautiful and strange.' —Today Programme, BBC Radio 4 'Impressive.' —Sunday Telegraph 'No mere Christmas stocking filler for Countdown fans. Rather, it's an ingenious little novel ... playful and irreverent ... charming.' —Metro
Download or read book Sonnet s Shakespeare written by Sonnet L'Abbe and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award-winning poet Sonnet L'Abbé returns with her third collection, in which a mixed-race woman decomposes her inheritance of Shakespeare by breaking open the sonnet and inventing an entirely new poetic form. DOROTHY LIVESAY POETRY PRIZE FINALIST RAYMOND SOUSTER AWARD FINALIST How can poetry grapple with how some cultures assume the place of others? How can English-speaking writers use the English language to challenge the legacy of colonial literary values? In Sonnet's Shakespeare, one young, half-dougla (mixed South Asian and Black) poet tries to use "the master's tools" on the Bard's "house," attempting to dismantle his monumental place in her pysche and in the poetic canon. In a defiant act of literary patricide and a feat of painstaking poetic labour, Sonnet L'Abbé works with the pages of Shakespeare's sonnets as a space she will inhabit, as a place of power she will occupy. Letter by letter, she sits her own language down into the white spaces of Shakespeare's poems, until she overwhelms the original text and effectively erases Shakespeare's voice by subsuming his words into hers. In each of the 154 dense new poems of Sonnet's Shakespeare sits one "aggrocultured" Shakespearean sonnet--displaced, spoken over, but never entirely silenced. L'Abbé invented the process of Sonnet's Shakespeare to find a way to sing from a body that knows both oppression and privilege. She uses the procedural techniques of Oulipian constraint and erasure poetries to harness the raw energies of her hyperconfessional, trauma-forged lyric voice. This is an artist's magnum opus and mixed-race girlboy's diary; the voice of a settler on stolen Indigenous territories, a sexual assault survivor, a lover of Sylvia Plath and Public Enemy. Touching on such themes as gender identity, pop music, nationhood, video games, and the search for interracial love, this book is a poetic achievement of undeniable scope and significance.
Download or read book Ground Works written by Christian Bök and published by House of Anansi Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology of Canadian experimental writers evokes the rich and unexpected heritage of current Canadian fiction. It contains groundbreakingly ruptured, side-splittingly excessive, weirdly lucid, and above all, endlessly interesting writing. Contributors include Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, Graeme Gibson, Christopher Dewdney, George Bowering, and Matt Cohen, as well as innovators such as Ray Smith, J. Michael Yates, Gail Scott, Andreas Schroeder, Audrey Thomas, and Robert Zend.
Download or read book Crystallography written by Christian Bök and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "'Crystallography' means the study of crystals, but also, taken literally, 'lucid writing.' This book of avant-garde literature features the intersection of poetry and science, and explores the relationship between language and crystals - looking at language as a crystal, a space in which the chaos of individual parts align to expose a perfect formation of structure."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Speaking of Power written by Di Brandt and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Speaking of Power: The Poetry of Di Brandt" introduces the reader to the lyric power and political urgency of the poetry of Di Brandt, providing an overview of her poetry written during a prolific and revolutionary twenty-year period. Beginning with her early poetic inquiries into the dynamics of gender, religion, and the politics of language, Brandt examines the use and abuse of power as a cultural issue, emphasizing cross-cultural and domestic relationships. Particularly engaged with questions of motherhood, the land, violence and reparation, feminism, and spirituality, Brandt explores ecopoetics, an ecology of poetry, as a possible antidote to the cultural despair of the twenty-first century. Editor Tanis MacDonald s introduction outlines the major movements of Brandt s work, emphasizing the relationship of language to power and the value of a dissenting voice in a forceful cultural poetics. An afterword by Brandt completes the volume. "
Download or read book A Companion to Poetic Genre written by Erik Martiny and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 661 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A COMPANION TO POETIC GENRE A COMPANION TO POETIC GENRE This eagerly awaited Companion features over 40 contributions from leading academics around the world, and offers critical overviews of numerous poetic genres. Covering a range of cultural traditions from Britain, Ireland, North America, Japan and the Caribbean, among others, this valuable collection considers ancient genres such as the elegy, the ode, the ghazal, and the ballad, before moving on to Medieval and Renaissance genres originally invented or codified by the Troubadours or poets who followed in their wake. The book also approaches genres driven by theme, such as the calypso and found poetry. Each chapter begins by defining the genre in its initial stages, charting historical developments and finally assessing its latest mutations, be they structural, thematic, parodic, assimilative, or subversive.
Download or read book The Best American Poetry 2007 written by David Lehman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-09-11 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth edition of The Best American poetry series celebrates the rich and fertile landscape of American poetry. Renowned poet Heather McHugh loves words and the unexpected places they take you; her own poetry elevates wordplay to a species of metaphysical wit. For this year's anthology McHugh has culled a spectacular group of poems reflecting her passion for language, her acumen, and her vivacious humor. From the thousands of poems published or posted in one year, McHugh has chosen seventy-five that fully engage the reader while illustrating the formal and tonal diversity of American poetry. With new work by established poets such as Louise Glück, Robert Hass, and Richard Wilbur, The Best American Poetry 2007 also features such younger talents as Ben Lerner, Meghan O'Rourke, Brian Turner, and Matthea Harvey. Graced with McHugh's fascinating introduction, the anthology includes the ever-popular notes and comments section in which the contributors write about their work. Series editor David Lehman's engaging foreword limns the necessity of poetry. The Best American Poetry 2007 is an exciting addition to a series committed to covering the American poetry scene and delivering great poems to a broad audience.
Download or read book Ligatures written by Donato Mancini and published by Transmontanus. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry. Drawing heavily on the work of bpNichols, and informed by contemporary visual art practices, LIGATURES is unafraid to wallow in the vernacular of popular culture. Sophisticated, irreverent humor marks this debut volume of concrete poetry from Donato Mancini. In a parody of literary modernism, LIGATURES embraces both visual and verabal beauty. Each piece intentionally echoes themes and concerns from its fellows, creating a visual and thematic dialogue between works.
Download or read book The Broadview Anthology of Poetry Second Edition written by Amanda Goldrick-Jones and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 1140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the poets new to this edition are such leading names as Americans Robert Pinsky, Louise Erdrich and Louise Glück; Britons James Fenton and Carol Ann Duffy; and Canadians Anne Carson, Robert Bringhurst, and Christian Bök. A number of names who may be new to many readers of poetry are also included among them: Ohioan Debra Allbery, Vancouverite Elise Partridge, and the Cree poet Connie Fife; as with the first edition, the editors have endeavored to include much that is fresh as well as much that is familiar. There are many additions to the selections from poets who appeared in the first edition including selections from the recent work of Leonard Cohen, Les Murray, and Margaret Atwood. As before, the anthology includes work from English-language poets throughout the world from India, Africa, and the Caribbean as well as from Britain, North America, and Australia. Although the selections from the work of poets of earlier eras are largely unchanged from the first edition, there have been some changes; among poems added for this edition are Milton’s L’Allegro and Il Penseroso, Bradstreet’s “Employment,” Dickinson’s “I cannot live without You,” Frost’s “Once by the Pacific,” and Auden’s “Funeral Blues.” As before, the text emphasizes work of the past century; poems from 1900 or later take up more than half of the anthology’s pages. In its first edition The Broadview Anthology of Poetry included biographical information about the poets at the back of the anthology; for the new edition, biographical material appears in a headnote to each poet. Two other features are also new to this edition: the date of first publication is appended after each poem, and line numbering is used throughout. The numbers have been kept unobtrusive, however; as with the first edition, the designers have endeavored to give a clean look to the pages of the anthology. A substantial section on prosody, figures of speech, and so on is included as an appendix.
Download or read book Another English written by Catherine Barnett and published by Poets in the World. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry. Anthology. Poetry Foundation's Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute poets in the world Series; Ilya Kaminsky, Series Editor. In this unprecedented anthology, acclaimed poets from around the world select poems from their countries of origin to share with a wider audience. Readers will find eloquence, urgency, and idiosyncrasy, poems all in English but springing from drastically varied voices, geographies, and histories. Using an artist's rather than a scholar's approach, these poems—chosen out of love and admiration by practicing poets—show the vitality of English deployed by revered and emerging poets in Ghana (selected by Kwame Dawes), India (by Sudeep Sen), South Africa (by Rustum Kozain), the Caribbean (by Ishion Hutchinson and five other Caribbean poets), Canada (by Todd Swift), and the Antipodes: New Zealand (by Hinemoana Baker) and Australia (by Les Murray).
Download or read book Anam Cara written by John O'Donohue and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Anam Cara is a rare synthesis of philosophy, poetry, and spirituality. This work will have a powerful and life-transforming experience for those who read it." —Deepak Chopra John O'Donohue, poet, philosopher, and scholar, guides you through the spiritual landscape of the Irish imagination. In Anam Cara, Gaelic for "soul friend," the ancient teachings, stories, and blessings of Celtic wisdom provide such profound insights on the universal themes of friendship, solitude, love, and death as: Light is generous The human heart is never completely born Love as ancient recognition The body is the angel of the soul Solitude is luminous Beauty likes neglected places The passionate heart never ages To be natural is to be holy Silence is the sister of the divine Death as an invitation to freedom
Download or read book Attack of the Difficult Poems written by Charles Bernstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-04-30 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Bernstein is our postmodern jester of American poesy, equal part surveyor of democratic vistas and scholar of avant-garde sensibilities. In a career spanning thirty-five years and forty books, he has challenged and provoked us with writing that is decidedly unafraid of the tensions between ordinary and poetic language, and between everyday life and its adversaries. Attack of the Difficult Poems, his latest collection of essays, gathers some of his most memorably irreverent work while addressing seriously and comprehensively the state of contemporary humanities, the teaching of unconventional forms, fresh approaches to translation, the history of language media, and the connections between poetry and visual art. Applying an array of essayistic styles, Attack of the Difficult Poems ardently engages with the promise of its title. Bernstein introduces his key theme of the difficulty of poems and defends, often in comedic ways, not just difficult poetry but poetry itself. Bernstein never loses his ingenious ability to argue or his consummate attention to detail. Along the way, he offers a wide-ranging critique of literature’s place in the academy, taking on the vexed role of innovation and approaching it from the perspective of both teacher and practitioner. From blues artists to Tin Pan Alley song lyricists to Second Wave modernist poets, The Attack of the Difficult Poems sounds both a battle cry and a lament for the task of the language maker and the fate of invention.
Download or read book Radiant Danse Uv Being written by Jeff Pew and published by Blewointment Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: a blewointment book "bill bissett is my astral twin." --Margaret Atwood Many of Canada's most renowned poets salute a national treasure in this poetic tribute to bill bissett. bissett has been a landmark on the Canadian literary scene since the 1960s, renowned as much for his fascinating life as for his poetics. He is best known for his anti-conventional poetry, which makes use of phonetic spelling and visual elements, and for his performances of concrete sound, chanting, and dancing during poetry readings. bissett is also the founder of blewointment press (now Nightwood Editions). Throughout his life, bissett has attracted a host of admirers--and not just from the counterculture movement. Poets of all styles are fans of his work, including Margaret Atwood, George Bowering, Di Brandt, Leonard Cohen, Lorna Crozier, Patrick Lane, bp Nichol, Steve McCaffery, Jay MillAr, PK Page, and Darren Wershler-Henry. No Canadian poet has gained a wider acceptance in the various poetic "schools" than bissett. His work transcends boundaries, appealing to those whose tastes run toward the traditional and to the more avant-garde. Now, for the first time, this diverse group of more than 80 poets comes together in one book to celebrate bissett's life and work. radiant danse uv being is an essential text for anyone interested in the work of bill bissett--and in Canadian literature itself.
Download or read book absence of clutter written by Paul Stephens and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of minimal writing—texts generally shorter than a sentence—as complex, powerful literary and visual works. In the 1960s and 70s, minimal and conceptual artists stripped language down to its most basic components: the word and the letter. Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Carl Andre, Lawrence Weiner, and others built lucrative careers from text-based art. Meanwhile, poets and writers created works of minimal writing—visual texts generally shorter than a sentence. (One poem by Aram Saroyan reads in its entirety: eyeye.) In absence of clutter, Paul Stephens offers the first comprehensive account of minimal writing, arguing that it is equal in complexity and power to better-known, more commercial text-based art. Minimal writing, Stephens writes, can be beguilingly simple on the surface, but can also offer iterative reading experiences on multiple levels, from the fleeting to the ponderous. “absence of clutter,” for example, the entire text of a poem by Robert Grenier, is both expressive and self-descriptive. Stephens first sets out a theoretical framework for reading and viewing minimal writing and then offers close readings of works of minimal writing by Saroyan, Grenier, Norman Pritchard, Natalie Czech, and others. He “reverse engineers” recent works by Jen Bervin, Craig Dworkin, and Christian Bök that draw on molecular biology, and explores print-on-demand books by Holly Melgard, code poetry by Nick Montfort, Twitter-based work by Allison Parrish, and the use of Instagram by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Saroyan. Text, it seems, is becoming ever more prevalent in visual art; meanwhile, poems are getting shorter. When reading has become scanning a screen and writing tapping out a text, absence of clutter invites us to reflect on how we read, see, and pay attention.
