[Wgcp-whc] Working Group/Poetics--1st meeting, Zukofsky

[richard.deming at yale.edu]

Dear Group,


I hope the new semester finds everyone well.  As a reminder, the first 
meeting of the Working Group in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics will 
occur on Friday, Sept. 17 at 1 PM in Rm 116 of the Whitney Humanities 
Center.  At that meeting we will discuss the semester’s agenda and also 
begin dealing with our first text, “A”-9 by Louis Zukofsky.  On Sept 22 
we will have a special session (though visitors are welcomed and 
encouraged to attend) in order to take advantage of a visit by Zukofsky 
scholar and poet Abigail Lang (UNIVERSITÉ PARIS III-SORBONNE NOUVELLE), 
who will be passing through New Haven after the upcoming Zukofsky 
conference, which is being held at Columbia 
(http://www.writing.upenn.edu/epc/authors/zukofsky/100/).  Professor 
Lang will be discussing with our group Zukofsky’s difficult but 
fascinating “A,” and section 9 in particular.

Photocopies of readings for the first meeting are now available at the 
Whitney Humanities center (the corner of Church and Wall) in a box 
identified by the group’s name.  The readings include A-9 as well as 
two critical pieces.  One is the introduction poet Robert Creeley wrote 
for the 1967 collection of “A.”  The other is a chapter from Barry 
Ahearn’s “Introduction to ‘A,’” (one of the first full length studies 
of the poet), which offers a close reading of sections 8-12.  This 
might be both helpful for those who may be new to Zukofsky’s work and 
might work as a good way of producing discussion points.

Here’s a link to a useful biographical essay on LZ by Mark Scroggins, 
considered by many to be the foremost authority on this poet.  
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/zukofsky/bio.htm

Other useful links include:
 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/zukofsky/zukofsky.htm
And http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/zukofsky/


“The Working Group in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics met every Friday 
at 1 PM in room 116 at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University 
to discuss problems and issues of contemporary poetry within 
international alternative and /or avant-garde traditions of lyric 
poetry. All are welcome to attend.”  

---R. Deming, group secretary