The international writers series at Kelly Writers House
Pierre Joris, while raised in Luxembourg, has moved between Europe, the U.S. & North Africa for half a century now, publishing close to 50 books of poetry, essays, translations and anthologies. Forthcoming in early 2016 is An American Suite (poems) from Inpatient Press. In 2014 he published Barzakh — Poems 2000-2012 (Black Widow Press); Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poems of Paul Celan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) which received the 2015 ALTA National Translation Award; A Voice full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly (co-edited with Peter Cockelbergh, Contra Mundum Press); and Bernat Manciet’s Ode to James Dean (co-translated from Occitan with Nicole Peyrafitte; mindmade books). 2013 had brought Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj (poems) from Chax Press & The University of California Book of North African Literature (vol. 4 in the Poems for the Millennium series), coedited with Habib Tengour (UCP). 2011 saw the publication of Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-between, edited by Peter Cockelbergh, with essays on Joris’ work by, among others, Mohamed Bennis, Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, Clayton Eshleman, Allen Fisher, Christine Hume, Robert Kelly, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Jennifer Moxley, Jean Portante, Carrie Noland, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff & Nicole Peyrafitte (Litteraria Pragensia, Charles University, Prague, 2011). Other recent books include Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader edited, introduced & translated by Pierre Joris (Black Widow Press, 2012); The Meridian: Final Version—Drafts—Materials by Paul Celan (Stanford U.P. 2011) which received the 2012 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work; Justifying the Margins: Essays 1990-2006 (Salt Books); Aljibar I & II (Poems, Editions PHI). Further translations include Paul Celan: Selections (UC Press) & Lightduress by Paul Celan which received the 2005 PEN Poetry Translation Award. With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Books of Modern & Postmodern Poetry. Pierre Joris lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with his wife, performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte. Check out his website & Nomadics Blog.
Nicole Peyrafitte is a pluridisciplinary artist born and raised in the Gascony part of the French Pyrenees & residing in Brooklyn with poet Pierre Joris with whom she often collaborates, as she does tonight. Her texts, voice-work, paintings, videos, & (on occasion) her cooking are displayed in a range of multi-lingual & multi-faceted performances. Peyrafitte’s work is informed & characterized by a daily practice — a quest for life in art and art in life between two continents & four languages. Her latest projects are: Things Fall Where They Lie a docu-vérité film in pre-production; LandscOpe a collection of texts & photographs— publication 2016. Recent publications include Bi-Valve : Vulvic Space/Vulvic Knowledge, 17 paintings, 17 multilingual texts, 1 recipe & 1 CD (Stockport Flats, 2013). She has performed all over the world, including at The Metropolitan Museum (NYC), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Poets House (NYC), The Poetry Project (NYC), Beyond Baroque (L.A), Bard College (N.Y), Bergen University (Norway), Birbeck College at the University of London (UK), University of Edinburgh (UK), Center for Contemporary Art Glasgow (UK), Festival Occitania & Cave Poésie (Toulouse-France), Estivada de Rodez (France), the Universities of Bordeaux & Angoulème (France); Festival Des Voix Vives de Sète (France), Festival des Voix de la Méditerranée, Lodève (France), Université de Bruxelles (Belgium), and Anthology Film Archives (NYC). In 2012 she wrote & co-directed the documentary film Basil King: MIRAGE with Miles Joris-Peyrafitte. For more information: www.nicolepeyrafitte.com.