Biographical Note

Poet Jennifer MoxleyJennifer Moxley was born in San Diego, California in 1964. At eighteen she worked as an au pair in France for a year, after which she returned to California and studied for three years at UC San Diego. In 1989 she moved with scholar and critic Steve Evans to Providence, Rhode Island, where she eventually completed her B.A. at the University of Rhode Island and then went on to earn an M.F.A. from Brown University in 1994. From 1992-1995 Moxley edited The Impercipient, a stapled and photocopied magazine dedicated to publishing the work of her contemporaries. Following this venture she co-edited, with Evans, the Impercipient Lecture Series, a monthly poetics pamphlet. She and Evans left Providence in February 1998 for Paris. In the summer of 1999, they returned to the States and settled in Maine.

Moxley is the author of Clampdown (Flood, 2009), The Middle Room (Subpress, 2008), The Line (Post-Apollo, 2007), Often Capital (Flood, 2005), The Sense Record and other poems (Edge, 2002; rpt. Salt, 2003), and Imagination Verses (Tender Buttons, 1996; rpt. Salt, 2003).

Her chapbooks include Coastal (The Song Cave, 2011); Fragments of a Broken Poetics (Impercipient Editions, 2006); Enlightenment Evidence (Cambridge, UK: Rem•press, 1996), which was translated into French as Evidence des Lumières at the Fondation Royaumont in 1998; and Wrong Life (Cambridge, UK: Equipage, 1999).

She has translated two books by the French poet and scholar Jacqueline Risset: a book of essays titled Sleep’s Powers (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008), and a book of poems, The Translation Begins (Burning Deck, 1996). In 2010, her translation of Anne Portugal's Absolute bob was published by Burning Deck. Her poem “Behind the Orbits” was chosen by Robert Creeley for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2002. She was the poetry editor for The Baffler magazine from 1997-2010 and a contributing editor of The Poker magazine from 2003-2008.

Moxley teaches poetry and poetics at the University of Maine.

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Selected Works

Books | Chapbooks | Translations | Editing | Essays & Personal Narratives | Anthologies | Online Poems | Reviews of Moxley's work | Readings

Books

Cover of Jennifer Moxley's Clampdown Cover image of The Middle Room by Jennifer Moxley Cover image of The Line by Jennifer Moxley

Clampdown | Chicago: Flood, 2009

The Middle Room | Berkeley: Subpress, 2007

The Line | Sausolito: Post-Apollo, 2007

Often Capital | Chicago: Flood Editions, 2005

The Sense Record | Washington, DC: Edge Books, 2002 | Rpt. Cambridge, UK & Australia: Salt Publishing, 2003

Imagination Verses | New York: Tender Buttons, 1996 | Rpt. Cambridge, UK & Australia: Salt Publishing 2003

Evidence des Lumières | Trans. of Enlightenment Evidence (see below) | Grâne, France: Editions Créaphis, 1998

Chapbooks

Cover of Jennifer Moxley's chapbook Coastal

Coastal | Amherst: The Song Cave, 2011

Fragments of a Broken Poetics | Orono: Impercipient Editions, 2006

The Occasion | New York City, NY: Belladonna, 2002

Wrong Life | Cambridge, England: Equipage, 1999

Enlightenment Evidence | Cambridge, England: Rem•press, 1996

Ten Still Petals | Providence: private, 1996

The First Division of Labour | Boston: Rosetta Chapbook, 1995

Cover of Fragments of a Broken Poetics by Jennifer Moxley

Translation

Cover of Anne Portugal's book Absolute bob, translated by Jennifer Moxley Cover of Sleep's Powers by Jacqueline Risset, translated by Jennifer Moxley

Absolute bob | Providence: Burning Deck, 2010 | Trans. of Définitif bob by Anne Portugal | Paris: P.O.L., 2002

Sleep's Powers | Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling, 2008 | Trans. of Puissances du Sommeil by Jacqueline Risset | Paris: Seuil, 1997

The Translation Begins | Providence: Burning Deck, 1996 | Trans. of La Traduction Commence by Jacqueline Risset | Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1971

Editing

On-line archive of The Impercipient at Arras (with introductory note)

Coeditor of The Impercipient Lecture Series | 10 issues in 1997

Contributing editor of The Poker from 2003 to 2008

Poetry editor of The Baffler from 1997 to 2010

Essays & personal narrative

A Personal Reminiscence Chronicling the First Documented Case of the Waldrop Effect | Composed for the fortieth-anniversary of Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop's Burning Deck Press

After Language Poetry | Originally published in the Swedish magazine OEI | 2002

Pillow Talk: A Short History of a Small Magazine | on The Impercipient | 2002

To Whom It May Concern: A Letter about Content | Originally published in Open Letter | 2001

Invective Verse | Originally published in Writing from the New Coast: Technique | 1993

Anthologies

American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry | New York: Norton, 2009

Vanishing Points | New Modernist Poems | Edited by Rod Mengham and John Kinsella | Salt, 2004

Isn’t It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets | Edited by Brett Fletcher Lauer and Aimee Kelley | Verse, 2004

The Best American Poetry 2002 | Edited by Robert Creeley

The Mechanics of the Mirage: Postwar American Poetry | Edited by Michel Delville and Christine Pagnoulle | Université de Liège: 2000 | Click here for a review

An Anthology of New (American) Poets | Edited by Lisa Jarnot, Christopher Stroffolino, and Leonard Schwartz | Talisman House, 1998

Poems Online

Moments Without Vision and In Medias Res | Brooklyn Rail June 2011

Lullaby | Iowa Review & Poetry Daily 2010

Dividend of the Social Opt-Out | Poetry Project April 2010

Three poems | Coconut 5

Aeolian Harp | Jacket 2

Fear of an Empty Life | Jacket 6

Four poems | Jacket 27

Three poems | Octopus 5

Reading Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth on the Romantic Circles: Poets on Poets website

Reviews and Essays on Moxley's work (partial)

Ange Mlinko on Clampdown

Rob Stanton on Clampdown

Carrie Etter on The Line

John Latta on The Line

Ron Silliman on The Line

Kathleen Ossip on The Middle Room

Shanna Compton on The Middle Room

Ron Silliman on Often Capital

Cole Swensen on The Sense Record

Chris Stroffolino & Katy Lederer on Wrong Life

Pete Smith on Wrong Life and other work

John Yau on Imagination Verses

Lucy Sheerman on Imagination Verses

Poetry Readings (since 1999, partial list with links to event publicity or coverage)

University of Chicago (video) | Brown University | Pomona College | Georgetown University | UMaine | Mills College | Kelly Holt's house in San Francisco | UC Davis | University of Denver | The Poetry Project | POG collective Tucson, Arizona | University of Pennsylvania | USC | Northwest Bookfest in Seattle | UC Berkeley | Johns Hopkins University | The Poetry Center in San Francisco | UC San Diego | U of Illinois at Chicago |


Cover of Jennifer Moxley's Clampdown
Cover of Jennifer Moxley's The Middle Room Cover of Jennifer Moxley's The Line Cover image
Clampdown
The Middle Room
The Line
Often Capital
       
cover image cover image cover image cover image
The Sense Record
The Sense Record
Imagination Verses
Imagination Verses

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