… here, what to my mind remains, besides & on a par with the poems, his greatest contribution to 20C & 21C poetics & thought, & found in his Letter to George and Tom Keats, 21, ?27 December 1817 namely, Negative Capability: Hampstead Sunday 22 December 1818 My dear Brothers I must crave your pardon for not having written ere this [ . . . ] [T]he excellence of every … Read more On John Keats’s 218th Birthday…
Here, the first 10 minutes (then my iPhone claimed fullness) of Jerome Rothenberg’s reading (at Page 22 this past Sunday) from EYE OF WITNESS, his amazing new book just out from Black Widow Press. Although billed as a “Reader”, this book is way more than a Selected gathering of poems, essays & translations. It is a true book of its own, an assemblage that organises fifty some years of … Read more Jerome Rothenberg Reading from ‘Eye of Witness’
World Series Poetry & Music Spectacular This Sat., Oct. 26, 2013, 7:30 p.m. baseball poetry readings from Lee Ann Brown Robert Gibbons Pierre Joris Tanya Olson Joe Pan Douglas Rothschild Amish Trivedi Kevin Varrone and music from Cool Papa Bell at Unnameable Books 600 Vanderbilt Ave. Brooklyn and then we’ll see what’s happening with the Red Sox and Cardinals in game 3 of the World Series, already in progress. … Read more Baseball, Poetry @ Unnameable Books Tonight
Wish I could be there (but am stuck in California)! TONIGHT: Mircea Cărtărescu & Eric Banks at Community Bookstore Dear Friends, We hope you’ll join us tonight in welcoming Mircea Cărtărescu, bestselling Romanian author of BLINDING, a kaleidoscopic novel tracing a man’s life, from his memories of traveling circuses, zombie armies, American fighter pilots, the underground jazz scene of New Orleans, to the installation of the Communist regime. Cărtărescu will appear … Read more Mircea Cărtărescu & “Blinding” in Brooklyn
via Arabic Literature (in English) by mlynxqualey Bad news Monday from Qatar’s Court of Cassation: Poet Mohamed al-Ajami’s 15-year prison term was upheld as final. Al-Ajami’s lawyer, Najib al-Naimi, told media outlets that al-Ajami’s only remaining option was to appeal to the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for clemency. Al-Naimi told AFP that “I hope the emir will grant him an amnesty.” Reuters reported that the court’s decision had … Read more Qatar Upholds 15-year Sentence for Poet Muhammad al-Ajami
UCSD New Writing Series: Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte Event Type: Poetry Reading Event Date and Time: October 23, 2013 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Description: UCSD’s New Writing Series is excited to announce a double reading from Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte on Wednesday, October 23rd at 4:30 in the SME Performance Space Room. Pierre Joris is the author of over 50 books of poetry, translations, anthologies, & … Read more San Diego Area Events
The air, misshapen. The country’s entrails, shredded by its children’s fingernails, the crossroads robed in dust lit up by their wrinkles, arrayed in clothes woven from their steps. Who will tell the crossroads: no, do not share your secrets with us. We no longer expect the magic of going our separate ways there, nor the bliss of reunion. translated by Pierre Joris & Samira Hassan
Below, the opening paras of Regina Keil-Sagawe’s excellent interview with Algerian novelist Yasmina Khadra in Qantara magazine; you can read the full interview here. “There Is a Life after Defeat” Now based in France, the Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra is one of his country’s most successful authors. The film The Attack, based on Yasmina Khadra’s book of the same name, was honoured as Best International Literary Adaptation at this … Read more Tears of the Crocodile
The Volta blog just published a review of my Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj. First paragraph below. You can read the whole piece here. In Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj, out this year from Chax Press, Pierre Joris offers his own meditations on the mediations facing his text. In a note occurring after the ninety pages and forty meditations, we’re let in on the procedure. These are translations … Read more “Meditations” Reviewed