<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Dear All--</div><div><br></div><div>last Friday the WGCP met for our first discussion of Peter Gizzi's <i>Outernationale</i>. Gizzi will be joining us from 3-5 Friday, Nov 6 to take part in our conversation about his work.</div><div><br></div><div>Rather than posting minutes from last week's discussion, I'll send along the series of questions drawn from our conversation. These questions will be sent to the poet and will serve as prompts for the conversation on Nov. 6. They should also provide a sense of the issues that arose in thinking about Gizzi's work. Below the questions I'll provide information for the reading Gizzi will give on Thursday, Nov. 5. Below that, I'm sending word of PAGE-TURNER: The Asian American Literary Festival, which is being run by WGCP-member-at-large Ken Chen.</div><div><br></div><div>Remember, the WGCP is open to everyone, so be sure to send word of Gizzi's visit to any interested parties.</div><div><br></div><div>Finally, I'm attaching an article about Gizzi's work by Olivier Brossard. Brossard will be leading our discussion of Keith Waldrop's work on 12/5 and so this will be a preview of his concerns, while also shedding light on Gizzi's poetics.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Onward,</div><div>Richard Deming, Events Planner</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</div><div><br></div><div>Questions for Gizzi------</div><div><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal">Throughout <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Outernationale</i>,
your work moves primarily by way of investigating rhetoric and rhetorical
tropes—from poetic apostrophes to if/then conditionals (though more <i>if</i> than
<i>then</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One notices also an
emphasis on sense experience, particularly sight.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Indeed, light is a recurring trope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In what way, then, is rhetoric
connected to the body or one’s experience of one—or another’s—body?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">There are recurring invocations of landscape in your
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Given your profound
investment in lyric traditions and history, what is your sense of the pastoral
as it applies to your work?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tied to this question is another one: what is nature or the
natural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In that there are
numerous urban images and references in your work alongside these landscapes it
would be interesting to have a sense of constitutes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">nature</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Given your own historic moment, coming after various
generations that questioned lyric subjectivity and the “I,” how do you navigate
the prevalence of irony that might subvert some of your lyric address?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is this something you consciously take
on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In other words, what are the
ways that after irony (or in the midst of an ironic age) the lyric is not
simply nostalgic?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">More fundamentally—and since its definition is not a stable
one—what is the lyric?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In that identity and nationhood is certainly a set of issues
that your collection takes on, what is “American” about America at least in
terms of the literary genealogy you draw together.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>What are the limitations of American-ness (as your work
implies that this new yet unapproachable America—to borrow Emerson’s phrase—has
not been reached)?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In terms of poetics and poetic form, what is the
relationship between politics and poetic form?<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Is the politics best addressed (most efficacious, etc) as
content or as form?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">At times, punctuation in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Outernationale</i>
becomes idiosyncratic. In terms of poetics and form, what and how do you think
through the functions of punctuation?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">You discuss the ideas of assemblage and salvage in regards
to West Coast artists and filmmakers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>What role does this play in your work?<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>And when does something constitute “assemblage”? Is
“Vincent, Homesick” a form of assemblage in terms of how it rearranges the
materials of itself (in its palindromic form)?<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>What is the difference between quotation, allusion, homage,
and salvage?</p>
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</div><div><br></div><div>+++++++++++++++++++++</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><b>Gizzi's Reading</b></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Grad Poets Reading Series</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">7:00 pm</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Thursday, November 5th</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Linsly-Chittenden Rm. 317</font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">A reading with poet Peter Gizzi.<span> Peter Gizzi is one of the most talented experimental lyric poets of his generation. </span>His books include <i><span>The Outernationale,</span></i><i><span>Some Values of Landscape and Weather</span></i>, <i><span>Artificial Heart</span></i>, and <i><span>Periplum and other poems 1987-92</span></i>. <span> </span>His many honors include the Lavan Younger Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets and a Guggenheim Fellowship. <span> </span>He is also the editor of <i>The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer</i> and, with Kevin Killian, of <i>My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer</i>.<span> </span>Currently he teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.</font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Books will be available to purchase, courtesy of the Yale University Bookstore.</font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">This event has been generously sponsored by the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate, the Dean's Fund and the Yale Review.</font></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</div><div><br></div><div>Ken Chen, Executive Director, The Asian American Writers’ Workshop</div><div><br>-----------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>The Asian American Writers’ Workshop presents<br><b><br>PAGE TURNER: The Asian American Literary Festival</b><br><br>Friday & Saturday, Nov. 13-14, 2009<br><br>Pageturnerfest.org<br><br><br><br>Join the Workshop for PAGE TURNER, a two-day literary palooza that’ll<br>bring together more than thirty writers, including Jhumpa Lahiri,<br>Michael Ondaatje, David Henry Hwang, Hari Kunzru, Ed Park, and<br>Porochista Khakpour. This quirky but curated festival will also<br>feature a former Chinese rocket factory worker, poets making video<br>art, ukulele-strumming comedian Jen Kwok, Indian crime fiction, panels<br>on internment and immigration, and a cocktail reception and awards<br>ceremony. For schedule and tickets, please visit pageturnerfest.org.<br><br><br><br>EVENTS DETAILS<br><br>Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, 7-10pm<br><br>PAGE TURNER: GALA KICK-OFF DINNER<br><br>At Vermilion, 480 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY<br><br>$50 cocktail reception (7-8pm); $500 gala dinner (8-10pm)<br><br>A special cocktail reception and dinner honoring Sonny Mehta, who will<br>receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Michael “English Patient”<br>Ondaatje. For tickets, visit aaww.org/dinner or call (212) 494-0061.<br><br><br><br>Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, 11am-7pm<br><br>PAGE-TURNER: The Asian American Literary Festival<br><br>powerhouse Arena,<br><br>$5 per reading; $20 Day Pass; $10 Literary Awards & Reception Only;<br>$25 All-Day Pass+Awards<br><br>A hip all-day reading series that’ll feature more than some of the<br>most prominent Asian American writers in the country, as well as<br>stand-up comedians, academics, and the Twelfth Annual Asian American<br>Literary Awards. The line-up includes: Jhumpa Lahiri, David Henry<br>Hwang, Ed Park, Mort Baharloo, Monique Truong, Hari Kunzru, Meera<br>Nair, Mohan Sikka, Hirsh Sawhney, Mae Ngai, Mitra Kalita, Alexander<br>Chee, Ron Hogan, Rakesh Satyal, Jen Kwok, Porochista Khakpour, Ed<br>Lin, Jennifer Hayashida, Jeff Yang, Sree Sreenivasan, Ravi Shankar,<br>Hua Hsu, Dennis Lim, Julie Otsuka, Rea Tajiri, Sunaina Maria, Tania<br>James, Hasanthika Sirisena, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Amitava Kumar, Lijia<br>Zhang, Alexandra Chang, Purvia Shah, Walter Lew, Ye Mimi, and others.<br>For a complete schedule and tickets see <a href="http://www.pageturnerfest.org/">http://www.pageturnerfest.org</a>. </div><div><br></div><div></div></body></html>