[Wgcp-whc] Working Group in Poetics--1st meeting 9-23

[richard.deming at yale.edu]

 September 2, 2005


Dear Friends of poetry,

As a new academic year begins, the Whitney Humanities Center Working
Group in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics reconvenes its efforts at
exploring the work of international writers of experimental,
avant-garde, extreme contemporary, modernist, post-modernist, and
neo-modernist modes.  In the past, we have discussed work by Pessoa,
Whitman, Celan, Loy, Howe, Bernstein, Perec, Oppen, a few dozen others.
 We have also had prominent writers visit with our group to discuss
their work in an informal, collegial setting.  These guests have
included Jacques Jouet, Susan Howe, Charles Bernstein, John Yau, Cole
Swenson, and Kent Johnson.

This semester, the first meeting will occur on September 23rd at 3.00 PM
in the Whitney Humanities Center, Rm. 116.  For the first meeting, group
member Lucas Klein will discuss his summer research regarding Ezra
Pound’s interest in the materiality of Chinese characters as well as
Pound’s relationship to the work of Fenellosa. Lucas will then locate
Pound’s interest within the larger arc of Pound’s own poetics.   In
large part, Lucas’s presentation will speak to the group’s central
mission of providing a forum for group member’s to present or discuss
their critical projects to a group of peers and colleagues. We hope to
make this practice a more active part of the group’s activities
throughout the year.

In keeping with last year’s practice, the group will meet every other
week. There will be one deviation so as to avoid too long a gap between
meetings due to the Thanksgiving recess. The dates then are the following:

9/23
10/7
10/21
11/4
11/11
12/2

We could, if interest and time allows, to schedule a meeting the 16th of
Dec as well.  The group will discuss the work of French poet/philosopher
Michael Deguy at the 10/7 meeting, as Deguy is reading his work at Yale
earlier that week.  We are working to arrange a visit from a writer
perhaps on the 12/2 date.    However, interested members should arrive
to the first meeting with some suggestions of writers whose work the
group might discuss throughout this semester and next.  The most
frequent suggestions that have been put forward but that haven’t yet
been discussed are: Gertrude Stein, Basil Bunting, Charles Olson, and
Caesar Vallejo.  Stein seems to be a good priority, especially since
Yale’s Beinecke Library houses her archives and so the group would be
able to see primary documents, manuscripts, and other items that speak
to and from Stein’s material culture.  We have had a number of field
trips to the Beinecke in the past and we are likely to do more of that
this semester. 

Also, given our funds, we are in a good position to expand our group’s
library.  If there are central books that people feel would be
particularly useful to the group’s needs, please send a list to one of
the administrators.  In any event, we are likely to be able to afford
buying reading copies of whatever writer we are working on.  All this
depends, of course, on the size of attendance at the regular meetings.


I will send a reminder late next week about the first meeting, and will
announce when the reading materials are ready for pick-up.  I should
mention that we are starting later in the semester than we normally
would so as not to conflict with two events that are occurring on the
16th.  The first is a reading by Native American fiction writer Sherman
Alexie at the Beinecke library.  The time of that event is   with a
reception following.  Also, late that night there will a reading at the
Arts and Literature Laboratory (located at the corner of Edwards and
State St) in a series curated by group member Suzanne Heyd.  The readers
that evening are Anna Moschovakis and Cathy Eisenhower.  Both are
experimental writers and translators who have been published by Phylum,
a small poetry press devoted to innovative poetry and which is edited by
Richard Deming and Nancy Kuhl.

This is the 6th semester of the group’s existence and it continues to
get stronger.  There are currently more than 70 members on the listserv
but of course each year more people join the Yale community and the
surrounding area. Indeed, the group has members from various departments
on campus and range from senior faculty to undergrads.  Moreover, we
also draw a number of people from other institutions and from the New
Haven community.  Please, pass on word of the group’s activities to
anyone you know who might be interested.  You may have them contact me
directly if they would like more information.

Good luck to everyone at the outset of a new academic year.

“The Working Group in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics meets every other
Friday at 3.00 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.”  


Onward,

Richard Deming, Group Secretary, Scribe, and Scrivener