The provocative position of Kent Johnson in American poetry over
the past two decades—as both its foremost gadfly and its
anti-institutional conscience—is unequalled. Admired and abhorred
in like measures, he is the author, translator, or editor of more
than thirty titles of poetry, criticism, nonfiction, and
metafiction. This collection represents a follow-up to his widely
reviewed 2008 classic from Shearsman, Homage to the Last
Avant-Garde. He has recently retired, after many years of teaching
English and Spanish. In 2004, he was named State Teacher of the
Year by the Illinois Community College Board of Trustees. From 2016
to 2020, with Michael Boughn, he oversaw the highly controversial
Dispatches from the Poetry Wars. "Offense given; offense taken.
Betrayals remembered and the betrayers unforgiven. Kent Johnson's
mordant poems burn away the scrimshaw, the lace-making, the dreck
that passes for poetry today, exposing the hypocrisy of our
official poetry culture where a cadre of pampered bourgeoisie
imagine themselves enlightened revolutionaries, and the poetics of
the avant-garde has congealed into a set of implicit rules more
formulaic than the traditions it seeks to supplant. A book like
this is rare and necessary in every age. Let the refiner's fire
break forth, lest universal darkness bury all." -James Chapson
(Poet Laureate of Milwaukee) "Kent Johnson is an avant-garde poet
without an avant-garde.... [He is] an antidote to the sentimental
courtesies and complacencies that prevent a conversation about what
and where poetry might be from soon beginning." -Keith Tuma
(Chicago Review) "[Kent] Johnson's poems are like unchained pit
bulls tossed into a school yard - somebody is going to get bit. But
you almost have to admire all that taut muscle & those
unstoppable jaws." -Ron Silliman (Silliman's Blog, 2/15/2006) "A
poetry embroiled with poetry. Poetry pitched into the flames of its
fractious lineage, presented as a colloquy of voices-most of which
never queue you; they're all so perfervid to have their say. A
signature convention pinched from one poet or another is catalyst
enough for Johnson's ventriloquy to toggle between papyrus and
blogosphere, homage and invective. Farcical, sprawling, lyrical,
smashed, shimmering, and without mercy." -C.D. Wright (on Homage to
the Last Avant-Garde, Shearsman, 2008)
General
Imprint: |
Shearsman Books
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
March 2020 |
Authors: |
Kent Johnson
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 6mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
90 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-84861-699-8 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-84861-699-6 |
Barcode: |
9781848616998 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!