![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.brooklynrail.org\/article_image\/image\/8123\/fitzgerald-web1.jpg\")
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Charles Bernstein by Phong Bui<\/span><\/p>\n by Charles Bernstein<\/cite><\/p>\n Charles Bernstein is the author of\u00a0Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays and Inventions<\/em> (University of Chicago Press, 2011);\u00a0All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems<\/em> (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010);\u00a0Blind Witness: Three American Operas<\/em> (Factory School, 2008); and\u00a0Girly Man<\/em> (Chicago Press, 2006). He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is co-director of PennSoundwriting.upenn.edu\/pennsound<\/a>.\u00a0 See\u00a0Epc.buffalo.edu<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Adam Fitzgerald (Rail):<\/strong> How long have you been working on the book? Meanwhile, you\u2019re prolifically writing essays, speaking, doing appearances, Interneting.<\/p>\n Charles Bernstein:<\/strong> Interneting? Hmm. I guess so.<\/p>\n Rail:<\/strong> When do you tell yourself these occasional performances, speeches, and texts should assemble into a larger pattern, a \u201cbook of essays\u201d?<\/p>\n Bernstein:<\/strong> There\u2019s a different story for each book. The basic unit of writing for me, more than a poem or essay, is the book. The collections are not structured primarily as chronological assemblings: each book has a formal or structural or thematic frame. With\u00a0All the Whiskey in Heaven<\/em>, my recent selected poems, even though all but the title poem had been in previous books, I went about making a new book in its own right, selecting works not just as best or representative, but in terms of what worked for the book.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"In](\"http:\/\/www.brooklynrail.org\/content\/article_type\/image\/2\/in_conversation.gif\")
<\/p>\nCHARLES BERNSTEIN with Adam Fitzgerald<\/h2>\n
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