Charles Bernstein EPC author page
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the poetry waters ...
Attack of the Difficult Poems "A superb poet and great inventor of poetry, Charles Bernstein dazzlingly invents the essay for poetry: professing in a gorilla suit and white tuxedo.”—George Lakoff “This is a smart and invigorating book that triumphantly demonstrates Charles Bernstein’s goals and values. Those who want satire, those who want earnest discussion, those who want information, those who want to get a sense of personality, those who want theory, those who want entertainment, even those who wish to be confirmed in their beliefs and those who wish to nurse their resentments, will all find something here.”—Daisy Fried “I regret to inform you that Charles Bernstein’s Attack of the Difficult Poems is highly unsuitable (not suitable) for National Poetry Month. Not suitable for acceptance by the publications of the Modern Language Association or its affiliate, the Annual Convention. Not suitable for readers under the age of five. Not suitable for endorsement by the Paris Review. Not suitable for your average television sitcom. Not suitable for tenure. Not suitable for free distribution. Not suitable for variations in the ontological condition. Not suitable for readers of generic poetry. Not suitable for the MFA. For everyone else: priceless.”—Tan Lin Charles Bernstein is our postmodern jester of American poesy, equal parts surveyor of democratic vistas and scholar of avant-garde sensibilities. In a career spanning thirty-five years and forty books, he has provoked us with writing that is unafraid of the tensions between ordinary and poetic language, and between everyday life and its adversaries. Attack of the Difficult Poems, his latest collection of essays, gathers some of his most memorably irreverent work while addressing seriously and comprehensively the state of contemporary humanities, the teaching of unconventional forms, fresh approaches to translation, the history of language media, and the connections between poetry and visual art. Applying an array of essayistic styles, Attack of the Difficult Poems ardently engages with the promise of its title. Bernstein introduces his key theme of the difficulty of poems and defends, often in comedic ways, not just difficult poetry but poetry itself. Bernstein never loses his ingenious ability to argue or his consummate attention to detail. Along the way, he offers a wide-ranging critique of literature’s place in the academy, taking on the vexed role of innovation and approaching it from the perspective of both teacher and practitioner. From blues artists to Tin Pan Alley song lyricists to Second Wave modernist poets, The Attack of the Difficult Poems sounds both a battle cry and a lament for the task of the language maker and the fate of invention. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-04477-4 Brooklyn Rail interview Reviews Jared Demick, Joel Brouwer Chris Jones Thomas Fink Norbert Hirschhorn Michael Hennessey Scott Wilkerson Rachel Abramowitz Rosemary Winslow
"A Poetics of Social Acts" American Book Review Volume 33, Number 2 January/February 2012 Stephen Ross Gerald Bruns Václav Paris Joshua Weiner Gary Thomas Morse Remarks/Commendations/Notes Norman Fischer, everyday zen Toronto Globe and Mail, April 23, 2011 Todd Swift, Eyewear C. O. Aptowicz, Amazon TLS's J.C. on "Genius poet of our time."
I. Professing Poetics II. The Art of Immemorability III. The Fate of the Aesthetic IV. Recantorium
VIDEO Attack of the Difficult Poems launch
Ten essays from Attack of the Difficult Poems "Against
National Poetry Month as Such"; listen to excerpt on NPR "The Art and Practice of the Ordinary" (Poetry Daily) Electronic Pies in the Poetry Skies - from The Politics of Information, ed. Marc Bousquet and Katherine Wills (Electronic Book Review); hypertext version via Coach House Press. Recantorium – trilingual e-book from Gammm: English, Italian, French
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