Claudia Rankine - American poets in the 21st century Buch

AMERICAN POETS IN
THE 21ST CENTURY

Also by Wesleyan University Press

American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language
Edited by Claudia Rankine and Juliana Spahr

AMERICAN POETS

IN THE

21ST CENTURY

THE NEW POETICS

EDITED BY

Claudia Rankine
AND
Lisa Sewell

Wesleyan University Press
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT

Published by Wesleyan University Press,
Middletown, CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

Copyright 2007 by Wesleyan University Press
All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

American poets in the 21st century : the new poetics / edited by Claudia Rankine and Lisa Sewell.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 9780819567277 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0819567272 (alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 9780819567284 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0819567280 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. American poetry21st century. I. Rankine, Claudia, 1963
II. Sewell, Lisa, 1960

PS617.A55 2007

811'.608dc22 2006102844

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE EDITORS would like to thank Suzanna Tamminen for her support of this project. Many thanks as well to Rachel Luckenbill, Jana Diemer, Fay Ellwood and especially Alanna Reeser for invaluable administrative support and assistance. Permission to reprint copyrighted material has been obtained whenever possible. The editors gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint from the following sources:

Joshua Clovers poems from The Totality for Kids (University of California Press, 2006) are reprinted by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press. Excerpts from The Totality for Kids by Joshua Clover 2006 in Charles Altieris The Pleasures of Not Merely Circulating: Joshua Clovers Political Imagination are reprinted by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press.

Stacy Doriss A Month of Valentines, originally appeared in Paramour (Krupskaya, 2001) and is reprinted by permission of the author and Krupskaya. Selections from Conference (Potes and Poets Press, 2001) are reprinted by permission of the author. Selections from Knot (University of Georgia Press, 2006) are reprinted by permission of the University of Georgia Press. Excerpts from Paramour by Stacy Doris 2001 in Caroline Crumpackers The Poetics of Radical Constraint and Unhooked Bedazzlement in the Writing of Stacy Doris are reprinted by permission of Krupskaya. Excerpts from Conference by Stacy Doris 2001 are reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpts from Knot by Stacy Doris 2006 are reprinted by permission University of Georgia Press.

Excerpts from Fidget by Kenneth Goldsmith 2000 in Raymond McDaniels Affect and Autism: Kenneth Goldsmiths Reconstitution of Signal and Noise are reprinted by permission of Coach House Books. Excerpts from Soliloquy by Kenneth Goldsmith 2001 are reprinted by permission of Granary Books. Excerpts from The Weather by Kenneth Goldsmith 2005 are reprinted by permission of Make Now Press.

Peter Gizzis poems from Some Values of Landscape and Weather (Wesleyan University Press, 2003) and The Outernationale (Wesleyan University Press, 2007) are published by the permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Myung Mi Kims poems from Commons (University of California Press, 2002) are reprinted by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press. Excerpts from Commons by Myung Mi Kim 2002 in Warren Lius Making Common the Commons: Myung Mi Kims Ideal Subject appear by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press. Excerpts from Under Flag by Myung Mi Kim 1991 are reprinted by permission of Kelsey Street Press. Excerpts from Dura by Myung Mi Kim 1998 are reprinted by permission of the author and Sun & Moon Press.

Mark Levines poems from Debt (William Morrow, 1993) are reprinted by permission of the author. Poems from Enola Gay (University of California Press, 2000) and The Wilds (University of California Press, 2006) are reprinted by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press.

Excerpts from Debt by Mark Levine 1993 in Sabrina Orah Marks Mark Levine: The Poetics of Evidence are reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpts from Enola Gay and The Wilds by Mark Levine 1998 and 2006 are reprinted by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press. Excerpts from Walter Benjamins Reflections Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings , and Illuminations in Sabrina Orah Marks essay Mark Levine: The Poetics of Evidence are reprinted by permission of the publishers of Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol 1, 19131926 , edited by Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings (Harvard University Press 1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College).

Mark Nowaks poems from Shut Up Shut Down (Coffee House Press, 2004) are reprinted by permission of the author and Coffee House Press.

Excerpts from Shut Up Shut Down by Mark Nowak 2004 in David Ray Vances essay Mark Nowak: Radical Documentary Praxic [Redux] are reprinted by permission of the author and Coffee House Press. Excerpt from Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts, by Adrienne Rich was originally printed in Adrienne Rich, Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001). Used by permission of the author W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Excerpt from Michael Davidsons essay On the Outskirts of Form: Cosmopoetics in the Shadow of NAFTA is from an unpublished book chapter and appears by permission of the author.

D. A. Powells poems from Tea (Wesleyan University Press, 1998) and Lunch (Wesleyan University Press, 2000) are published by the permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Karen Volkmans poems from Spar (University of Iowa Press, 2002) are reprinted by permission of the author and University of Iowa Press. Excerpts from Shipwreck Poem, Infernal, Infidel, Looking Back, Equations, Casanova In Love, Chronicle, and Persephone at Home appear in Paul Otrembas A Space for Desire and the Mutable Self: Karen Volkmans Experimentations with the Lyric. All are from Crashs Law by Karen Volkman 1996. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Excerpts from Spar by Karen Volkman 2002 are reprinted by permission of University of Iowa Press.

Juliana Spahrs Gentle Now, Dont Add to Heartache originally appeared in Tarpaulin Sky (http://www.tarpaulinsky.com), Volume 3, Issue 2, Summer 2005 and is reprinted by permission of the author and Tarpaulin Sky . Excerpts from Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You by Juliana Spahr 2001 in Kimberly Lamms All Together/Now: Writing the Space of Collectivities in the Poetry of Juliana Spahr are reprinted by permission Wesleyan University Press. Excerpts from This Connection of Everything with Lungs by Julianna Spahr 2005 are reprinted by permission of the author and the Regents of the University of California, University of California Press. Excerpts from Response by Juliana Spahr 1996 and Changing Rooms are reprinted by permission of the author.

Susan Wheelers The Debtor in the Convex Mirror originally appeared in Ledger (University of Iowa Press, 2005) and is reprinted by permission of University of Iowa Press. Excerpts from Smokes by Susan Wheeler 1998 in Lynn Kellers Susan Wheelers Open Source Poetics are reprinted by permission of the author and Four Way Books. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Lisa Sewell