[Wgcp-whc] WG/CP--A new semester a dawning

[richard.deming at yale.edu]

January 24, 2007

Dear Friends of Poetry,

The new semester has lumbered to life and time to think about what the Working
Group In Contemporary Poetics has in mind.

First, I want to say again that our final session of last semester on the work
of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali was extremely valuable.  We were joined
by Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman, the poet?s translator and biographer,
respectively.  Peter and Adina did a great deal to contextualize this writer
who has recently yet quickly emerged into international importance.  A writer
such as Ali deals of course with his context and milieu at every turn and we
couldn?t have asked for better or more sensitive, thoughtful guides than
Peter and Adina.  Moreover, they were able to give a sense of the controversy
that attaches itself to the work of this poet who avoids militant stances in
his work in his attempts to humanize the political situation that is the
reality in which he finds himself.   Indeed, his work?as we noted in our
discussion?particularizes in such a way as to reveal politics in its material
everyday reality. Indeed, many remarked that the discussion helped their
understanding of the poems themselves a great deal. Our thanks once again to
Adina and Peter (both too brief visitors to Yale?s community) for the
comprehensive discussion of this crucial poet?s work.


But now we turn to the semester. We will meet on the following dates:

2/9,
2/23
3/30,
4/20,
5/4


As ever, we meet at 3 PM (until 5) in Rm 116 of the Whitney Humanities Center.
We?re working on several guests and as soon as those plans are finalized
I?ll announce them.  Our first guest is a definite.  Nathaniel Tarn will join
us for a discussion of his work on Feb. 23. We will have a discussion of his
work at our first session, Feb. 9.

 Tarn continues our year-long focus
on ethnopoetics.  A noted poet/translator/editor/polyglottal polymath, Tarn is
also a trained anthropologist and a specialist in Highland Maya studies and the
sociology of Buddhist institutions.   An article by Stanley Corngold on Tarn?s
early work can be viewed here:
http://www.jstor.org/cgi-bin/jstor/viewitem/01903659/ap020009/02a00050/0?frame=noframe&dpi=3&backcontext=page

A more recent discussion of Tarn by Brenda Hillman is found here
http://jacketmagazine.com/28/hill-tarn.html

The link to Tarn?s archive at Stanford University is available here:
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ablit/amerlit/Tarn.html

We have purchased copies of Tarn?s Selected Poems and will distibute them as
soon as they are available.  We will also look at some essays from Tarn?s
forthcoming book The Embattled Lyric.  I?m including those by way of
attachment.  At that first session we can develop a set of questions that we
can send to Tarn in advance of his visit.

Also as a reminder, one can see all poetry events happening at Yale by going to
this site:
http://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com/


I greet you at the beginning of a great semester.
Richard Deming, Group Secretary

?The Working Group in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics meets 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.?

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