Jackson Mac Low, born 12 September 1922 in Chicago, is a poet and compos er and a writer of performance pieces, essays, plays, and radio works (mainly produced at WestdeutscherRundfunk, Cologne). He is also a painter and multimedia performance artist (often with his wife, Anne Tardos). Author of 26 books, his work has also been published in many anthologies and periodicals and read publicly, exhibited, performed, and broadcast in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. He has read, performed, and lectured throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand.
He has taught at many schools, notably New York University (1966-73), and in recent years has taught creative writing at SUNY-Albany (1984), SUNY-Binghamton (1989), Temple (Philadelphia, 1989), UC-San Diego (Regents' Lecturer, 1990), Naropa Institute (Boulder, 1975, 1991, 1994), Schule fuer Dichtung in Wien (Vienna, 1992, 1993), Bard College (MFA program, 1994), and Brown University (1994).
He has received fellowships and grants from CAPS (NY State, 1974, 1977), the NEA (1979), PEN (1974, 1982), the Guggenheim Foundation (1985), the Fulbright Foundation (for New Zealand, 1986), the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council (N.Z., 1986), the New York Foundation for the Arts (1988), and The Fund for Poetry (1988-89, 1991-92).
His visual works have been exhibited in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Austria, France, Italy, and Australia, most recently at Galerie 1900-2000 (Paris, 1989); Galleria F. Borghese, (Rome, 1990); the "Ubi Fluxus ibi motus" pavilion, Venice Biennale (1990); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (1990); Salvatore Ala Gallery (NYC, 1990); Emily Harvey Gallery (NYC, 1990-91, 1991-92); Plug In, Brian Melnychenko, and 1.1.1 galleries (Winnipeg, 1991); Galerie Krinzinger (Innsbruck, 1991); Tapeziererwerkstatt Wolfgang Radeczecki (Vienna, 1991), and in Cork, Ireland (1995).
His recent publications include the books Bloomsday (1984), French Sonnets (1984, 2nd ed. 1989), The Virginia Woolf Poems (1985), Eight Drawing-Asymmetries (1985), Representative Works: 1938-1985 (1986), Words and Ends from Ez (1989), Twenties: 100 Poems (1991), Pieces o' Six: Thirty-three Poems in Prose (1992), 42 Merzgedichte in Memoriam Kurt Schwitters (1994), and Barnesbook (1995) and the compact disc (with Anne Tardos and seven instrumentalists) Open Secrets (1993).
* book available from the author
# edition available from the author
@ photocopy of original typescript available
author's address: e-mail: maclow@aol.com
mail address: 42 North Moore St.,
New York, NY 10013-2441
phone/fax: 212 226-3346
* The Twin Plays: Port-au-Prince & Adams County Illinois
1st edition
(New York: Mac Low and Bloedow, 1963);
# 2nd edition
[JML's 1st printed book]
(New York: Something Else Press, 1966)
* The Pronouns--A Collection of 40 Dances--For the Dancers
1st edition
(New York: Mac Low and Judson Dance Workshop, 1964);
2nd edition
revised, with multicolored graphics by Ian Tyson
(London: Tetrad Press, 1971);
# 3rd edition
newly revised, with new essays by Mac Low
and photographs of 1st performances [1965]
by Peter Moore
(Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1979)
@ Verdurous Sanguinaria
[play] (Baton Rouge, LA: Southern University, 1967)
* August Light Poems
(New York: Caterpillar Books, 1967)
22 Light Poems
(Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968)
23rd Light Poem: For Larry Eigner
with multicolored graphics by Ian Tyson
(London: Tetrad Press, 1969)
* Stanzas for Iris Lezak
[poems written 1960 for solo reading or simultaneous
group performance]
(Barton, VT: Something Else Press, 1972)
4 trains
(Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 1974)
36th Light Poem: In Memoriam Buster Keaton
(London: Permanent Press, 1975)
21 Matched Asymmetries
[group-performance poems]
(London: Aloes Books, 1978)
54th Light Poem: For Ian Tyson
(Milwaukee: Membrane Press, 1978)
* A Dozen Douzains for Eve Rosenthal
(Toronto: Gronk Books, 1978)
* phone
with art by Ray Johnson
(New York and Amsterdam: Printed Editions
and Kontexts, 1978)
* Asymmetries 1-260
[poems written 1960 for solo reading or simultaneous
group performance]
with cover video image by Gary Hill
& 3-color poem-superimpositions by Patricia Nedds
(New York: Printed Editions, 1980)
* "Is That Wool Hat My Hat?"
[4-color performance poem for 4 readers]
(Milwaukee: Membrane Press, 1982)
* From Pearl Harbor Day to FDR's Birthday
with cover by Douglas Messerli
1st printing
(College Park, MD: Sun & Moon Press, 1982)
# 2nd printing
[Sun & Moon Classics Edition, Los Angeles, 1995]
* Bloomsday
[co-winner, San Francisco State University
Poetry Center Book Award]
with cover design & photos by Richard Gummere
(Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1984)
* French Sonnets
# 1st edition
designed by Charles Alexander
(Tucson, AZ: Black Mesa Press, 1984)
# 2nd edition
text designed by Charles Alexander
with computer-aided covers & endpapers
by Anne Tardos
(Milwaukee: Membrane, 1989)
* The Virginia Woolf Poems
[hardcover and paperback]
(Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 1985)
* Eight Drawing-Asymmetries
[boxed porfolio of serigraphs
of 1961 verbal performance-score drawings]
(Verona: Francesco Conz, 1985)
* Representative Works: 1938-1985
[a "sampler" of poems, music, & performance works]
with introduction by Jerome Rothenberg
and cover art by Kurt Schwitters
[hardcover and paperback]
(New York: Roof Books, 1986)
* Words nd Ends from Ez
[derived by diastic text-selection, 1981-83,
from Ezra Pound's Cantos]
with computer-aided cover art by Anne Tardos
(Bolinas, CA: Avenue B, 1989)
Twenties: 100 Poems: 24 February 1989 - 3 June 1990
with computer-aided cover art by Anne Tardos
(New York: Roof Books, 1991)
Pieces o' Six: Thirty-three Poems in Prose
[written 1983-87]
with computer-aided cover art and videographics by
Anne Tardos
(Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1992)
42 Merzgedichte in Memoriam Kurt Schwitters
[written 1987-90]
with computer-aided painting
of Schwitters by Anne Tardos on cover
(Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1994)
Barnesbook
poems derived by computer-aided nonintentional
operations and intentional composition
from works by Djuna Barnes
with computer-aided cover art by Anne Tardos
(Los Angeles: Sun & Moon, 1995)