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Wystan Curnow

Photo © 2006 Charles Bernstein/PennSound

Close Listening: Reading and Conversation with Charles Bernstein, April 7, 2009

Program One Reading (27:42): MP3

1. On Volcanoes (8:05): MP3 text here
2. The Western (9:05): MP3 text here
3. from "The Astronauts: An Autobiography" (8:14): MP3 text here

Program Two Conversation with Charles Bernstein (28:30): MP3
transcript of conversation at Jacket2

1. Introduction by Charles Bernstein (0:40): MP3
2. On the autobiographical nature of poetry - the role of region (3:35): MP3
3. Dialect (1:10): MP3
4. On the appropriation of texts (4:41): MP3
5. Location in context of global connections (3:44): MP3
6. Visual arts in new zealand and global cultural context (6:01): MP3
7. Influence of european and american arts on poetry (5:08): MP3
8. Relation of poetics to art writing (3:09): MP3

PoemTalk Podcast #22, discussing Louis Zukofsky's "It's hard to see but think of a sea," from Anew, September 14, 2009

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Writers Without Borders Reading at the Kelly Writers House, April 14, 2009

  1. introduction by Al Filreis (2:22): MP3
  2. introduction by Bob Perelman (3:03): MP3
  3. Keeping to Myself (1:25): MP3
  4. Cancer Daybook (7:47): MP3
  5. Shored Up (3:25): MP3
  6. Riffing on Tzara (6:20): MP3
  7. Down Comes a Nude (0:33): MP3
  8. Paris Sucks (0:30): MP3
  9. Listen Here (0:41): MP3
  10. Young Yvonne (3:06): MP3
  11. Portrait of Picabia (2:47): MP3
  12. Max (9:48): MP3
  • Complete reading (41:57): MP3   MOV

Writers Without Borders Lecture, "Curating as a Critical Practice," at the Kelly Writers House, April 7, 2009

Complete Lecture (1:22:03): MP3   MOV

Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, May 8, 2007

  • (introduction by Charles Bernstein)
  • Part one (22:57): MP3
  • Part two (12:00): MP3
  • from this second part, one single, "Matisse Asleep" (3:10): MP3
  • Full reading with Joel Kuszai (1 hour): MP3

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Wystan at Penn, October 18, 2006

Watch on Media.sas

Wystan Curnow
Wystan had just come to town from the Creeley conference. In 1993, he had spent a semester in  Buffalo as a Poetics Program Fellow (along with Arkadii Dragomochenko, Eric  Mottram, and Ernesto Livon-Grosman). I asked him about going to graduate school at Penn, where he was the first New Zealander to get a PhD in English in the U.S.
(mp4, 45 seconds, 5.8 mb)


Reading at Wednesdays @ 4 Plus, SUNY-Buffalo, February 17, 1993

  1. introduction (3:04): MP3
  2. from Back in the USA (1:39): MP3
  3. from Cancer Daybook (7:51): MP3
  4. from Lives of the Artists (8:17): MP3
  5. GWTW: Selected Stills (8:39): MP3
  6. Progress never came without a fight (7:40): MP3
  7. working with artist Billy Apple on the question of the geography of the word (7:40): MP3
  8. a re-write of Robert Graves' version of the Atalanta story (4:07): MP3
  9. Smeared in oil (2:00): MP3

Complete recording (53:32): MP3

Reading at the Ear Inn, New York, February 10, 1988

  • Complete Reading (36:01): MP3

Wystan Curnow on PennSound Daily

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only.
© 2009 Wystan Curnow. Close Listening © 2009 Curnow and Bernstein. All rights reserved. Distributed by PennSound.