Ron Silliman

Photo © 2008 Charles Bernstein/PennSound

LINEbreak program with Charles Bernstein, New York, 1996

1. introduction by CB (0:22): MP3
2. on writing a 26 part work and "Albany," the first part of The Alphabet (3:03): MP3
3. RS reading from "Albany" (5:05): MP3
4. discussing two sentences from "Albany:" "If it demonstrates form some people won't read it," and "If the function of writing is to 'express the world'" (2:25): MP3
5. on the different kinds of sentences in "Albany" and the relationships between them (1:02): MP3
6. RS's interest in disjuncture (2:11): MP3
7. on the poetry audience (3:00): MP3
8. circumstances under which poetry has had political efficacy (3:11): MP3
9. what is a literary movement? (1:09): MP3
10. RS reading from Xing (5:22): MP3

PoemTalk Podcasts

PoemTalk #111, Discussing Naomi Replansky's "In Syrup, In Syrup," and "Ring Song," feat. Ron Silliman, Rachel Zolf, and Charles Bernstein

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

PoemTalk #97, Discussing poems by Larry Eigner

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

PoemTalk #69, Discussing Rachel Blau DuPlessis's "Draft 85: Hard Copy"

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

PoemTalk #62, Discussing Charles Alexander's "Near or Random Acts", feat. Mark Nowak, Ken Jacobs, and Ron Silliman

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

PoemTalk #59, Discussing Paul Blackburn's "7th Game: 1960 Series"

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

PoemTalk #54, Discussing Ron Silliman's "You"

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

PoemTalk #8, Discussing Rae Armantrout's "The Way"

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

PoemTalk #45, Conversation with Alan Golding, Orchid Tierney, Bob Perelman & Ron Silliman

Complete recording (58:22): MP3

Grand Piano Reading: Episode 8, December 15, 2022

Watch on media.SAS

Ron Silliman: I tried to contextualize the environment that greeted us in the 1970s by confronting just how much the Donald M. Allen anthology shaped and misshaped the poetic landscape of the 1960s by contrasting it with Daisy Aldan's counter anthology, A Folder. And went on to discuss how that conditioned my early relations with David Bromige, whose collected books Bob Perelman and I (and Jack Krick) would go on to co-edit.

Ashraf Fayadh Teach-in at the Kelly Writers House on January 14, 2016

part of the "Life & Freedom for Ashraf Fayadh Worldwide Reading"

1. Introduction by Charles Bernstein (3:26): MP3
2. Untitled excerpts from Instructions Within (used as "evidence" by the Saudi courts in sentencing Fayadh to death for "apostasy") read by Ron Silliman (5:28): MP3
3. "A Space in the Void" (original Arabic) (4:14): MP3
4. "A Space in the Void" (trans. Johnathan Wright) read by Julia Bloch (2:08): MP3
5. "A Melancholy Made of Dough" oOriginal Arabic) (5:58): MP3
6. Brief Remarks on "A Melancholy Made of Dough" from Rachel Blau Duplessis (2:21): MP3
7. "A Melancholy Made of Dough" (trans. Tariq al Haydar) read by Rachel Blau Duplessis (3:00): MP3
8. "The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants" (original Arabic) (12:31): MP3
9. "The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants" (trans. Johnathan Wright) read by Ariel Resnikoff (6:59): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Zinc Bar, New York City, January 24, 2015

1. Introduction (02:04): MP3
2. Against Conceptual Poetry for Kathy Acker (32:08): MP3

• Complete recording: (35:45): MP3

Complete interview (20:05): MP3

1. On Revelator and Zukofsky (1:47): MP3
2. On Revelator, line, and form (2:09): MP3
3. On John the Revelator (1:43): MP3
4. On the United States (3:26): MP3
5. On national borders (3:00): MP3
6. On retirement and writing (2:32): MP3
7. On the significance of form (1:06): MP3
8. On the function of line and margin (1:56): MP3
9. Reading from Revelator (2:06): MP3

Recorded Poems on Harry's House Vol 2, 2013, CD

• Section 3 of "Carbon" from The Alphabet - Ron Silliman (1:18): MP3

Introducing Rachel Blau DuPlessis, in celebration of Surge: Drafts: 96-114, KWH, September 25, 2013

Reading for Joseph Ceravolo Celebration, Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, September 9, 2013

• Complete reading (8:17): MP3

Reading for ex.it, Materiali Fuori Contesto, Albinea, Italy, April 12, 2013

Opening passage from "Sunset Debris"

Video recording:

• Video mirror: Media.SAS server

• Audio recording (5:07): MP3

Reading for the Readings in Contemporary Poetry series at Dia Art Foundation, New York: Chelsea, March 4, 2013

with Robert Fitterman

• Caledonia, from Universe (33:39): Caledonia
• Complete reading (35:21): MP3

Convergence on Poetics, University of Washington Bothell, North Creek Events Center, September 27-30, 2012

• Ron Silliman (9:07): MP3
• Complete recording (1:55:03): MP3

Reading and discussion of "BART," Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, October 25, 2012

1. Ron Silliman reading "BART" (28:38): MP3
2. Group discussion led by Al Filreis (with Ron Silliman, Kristen Martin, Lily Applebaum, Max McKenna, Molly O'Neill, Emily Harnett, Dave Poplar, and Amaris Cuchanski) (42:59): MP3

Reading from The Alphabet, Penn State University, October 9, 2012

1. Introduction by A.L. Nielsen (2:54): MP3
2. prefatory comments on The Alphabet (1:58): MP3
3. Albany (7:29): MP3
4. Blue (5:51): MP3
5. Carbon (14:59): MP3
6. For Larry Eigner, Silent [from VOG] (6:43): MP3
7. Seven Sad Forests [from VOG] (1:43): MP3
8. from What (11:13): MP3

• Complete reading (56:40): MP3

Complete reading (4:18): MP3

Discussion during the the Kelly Writers House Fellows Program, March 20, 2012

1. spontaneous prose and RS's relationship with "First thought, best thought" as an idea (3:48): MP3
2. obsessiveness in RS's writing (9:37): MP3
3. student responses to reading Ketjak and RS's experience coming out of the first generation of readers who looked at Pound, Williams and Stein together (3:55): MP3
4. the academy and radical pedagogy (10:21): MP3
5. on RS's elegy for Larry Eigner and the line "I WANT SPEECH" in response to Bob Grenier's "I HATE SPEECH" (6:48): MP3
6. RS reading "For Larry Eigner, Silent" (5:32): MP3
7. RS discussing his blog and the decision to disable comments (7:28): MP3
8. the relation between embodiment and disembodiment in RS's work and using numbering systems in writing (7:03): MP3
9. on John Cage's influence (2:57): MP3
10. RS's current relationship to politics and Marxism (7:24): MP3
11. RS's relationship to Ezra Pound (4:34): MP3
12. on work, play and labor (4:53): MP3
13. RS on his grandmother and his first muse (3:59): MP3

Reading for the Kelly Writers House Fellows Program, March 19, 2012

1. introduction by Al Filreis (6:32): MP3
2. introduction by Rivky Mondal (6:16): MP3
3. introduction by Jamie-Lee Josselyn (2:14): MP3
4. from Ketjak (14:45): MP3
5. remarks on Ketjak (3:39): MP3
6. Ketjak shadow text (22:09): MP3
7. Q & A (14:19): MP3

• Complete reading (1:09:54): MP3

Video recording:

"Un-scene, Ur-new: Time, History & Ambition in The Collage Poems of Drafts," Rachel Blau DuPlessis Celebration, Temple University, October 21, 2011

1. introduction (1:14): MP3
2. Silliman's first encounters with Drafts (4:50): MP3
3. the long poem in relation to the modernist literary project (6:36): MP3
4. Zukofsky's A as a useful counterpoint to Drafts and the crisis of the long poem that is at the heart of its composition (5:54): MP3
5. finding and defining boundaries in relation to the question of what constitutes a long poem (7:12): MP3
6. gendered critique and the long poem as a male form (5:38): MP3
7. thinking of what enters into the poem not as new information but as contamination (6:24): MP3
8. graphic intervention and extralinguistic information in "Drafts 1-8" (4:50): MP3
9. the act of the mark upon paper, the edge of legibility and articulation (2:39): MP3
10. the dimensions of the grid and color, and reading horizontally as well as vertically (2:22): MP3
11. "Draft 94: Mail Art," "Draft 110: Primer," and exploring the frontier of literacy (11:23): MP3

• Complete reading (1:01:58): MP3

Video recording:

Poetry in 1960 - A Symposium at the Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, December 6, 2010

on The Opening of the Field by Robert Duncan (6:42): MP3

Complete program (2:20:13): MP3

MLA Off-Site Reading at the Rotunda, Philadelphia, December 29, 2009

Silliman's segment ("Low cricket solos") (2:31): MP3

Complete reading (2:36:46): MP3

Appearing on Cross-Cultural Poetics, Episode #195, "The Alphabet/Farout", June 7, 2009

Complete interview (34:58): MP3

Reading at the Birkbeck Poetics Centre, London, May 5, 2009

View video recording: Vimeo

1. opening remarks by Carol Watts (1:35): MP3
2. Quindecagon (from The Alphabet) (12:56): MP3
3. ® ("Circle R") (from The Alphabet) (36:55): MP3
4. Q&A Discussion (9:11): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, April 4, 2009

Recording (begins midway through) (17:46): MP3

The Alphabet Reading at the Kelly Writers House, February 17, 2009

1. Introduction by Jessica Lowenthal (3:09): MP3
2. Comment by Rachel Blau DuPlessis (10:44): MP3
3. Comment by Charles Bernstein (5:18): MP3
4. Comment by Bob Perelman (4:12): MP3
5. The Alphabet Reading (52:10): MP3
Albany [pp. 1-2] (5:51): MP3
Force [pp. 43-48] (9:55): MP3
from Non [pp. 356-357] (2:35): MP3
from Paradise [pp. 410-411, 425-431] (26:18): MP3
from VOG, "For Larry Eigner, Silent" [pp. 607-609] (6:40): MP3

Complete Recording (1:08:10): MP3
Watch a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

From A Celebration of George Oppen's 100th Birthday at the Kelly Writers House, April 7, 2008

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Ron & George, March 5, 2008

Ron Silliman
After a PoemTalk recording at CPCW, Rachel, Ron, and I wondered over to a Thai place a few blocks West on Chestnut. We then walked back to Walnut and 38th and stopped for a minute on parking ramp, before getting in Ron's car so he could drive Rachel home and drop me off at Bob and Francie's.
(mp4, 29 sec., 11mb)

Reading for the Contemporary Writers Series at Mills College, October 2, 2007

1. Introduction by Stephen Ratcliffe (6:10): MP3
2. The Age of Huts (15:10): MP3
3. A Chinese Notebook (7:09): MP3
4. 2197 (10:26): MP3
5. Q&A (15:48): MP3

Complete Reading (58:35) MP3

MLA Offsite Series Reading in Philadelphia, December 26, 2006

"this April eve you do deceive..." (0:29): MP3

Reading at Kutztown State University in PA, March 6, 2006

1. Opening Comments (2:25): MP3
2. Xing (from The Alphabet) [pp. 861-901] (33:06): MP3

Complete recording (35:41): MP3

Desert City Reading at Chapel Hill, March 2, 2006

1. Introduction (4:45): MP3
2. Xing (from The Alphabet) [pp. 861-901] (35:08): MP3

Complete recording (39:48): MP3

Amy King interviews Ron Silliman on a miPOradio POdcast at Bowery Poetry Club, November 19, 2005

Complete interview (50:15): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, November 19, 2005

1. Introduction (3:43): MP3
2. Silliman's opening comments (3:08): MP3
3. Quindecagon (from The Alphabet) [pp. 433-440] (8:38): MP3
4. Albany (from The Alphabet) [pp. 1-2] (5:26): MP3
5. On Under Albany (1:53): MP3
from Under Albany
6. "If a function of writing is to express the world" (4:40): MP3
7. "A benefit reading" (10:17): MP3
8. "Co-payment" (3:37): MP3

Complete Reading (42:07): MP3

Talk at the Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, "Theorizing" series, February 23, 2005

Plotless Prose: Robert Duncan's H.D. Book (1:30:00): MP3

Reading at the Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania September 21, 2004

1. Introduction by Bob Perelman (6:07): MP3
2. Albany (from The Alphabet) [pp. 1-2] (5:55): MP3
3. Quindecagon (from The Alphabet) [pp. 433-440] (9:57): MP3: text, © Ron Silliman 1995, 2004
4. From Xing (from The Alphabet) [pp. 861-882] (20:48)MP3
5. from Vog, "Woundwood" (from The Alphabet) [pp.735-741] (8:07): MP3
6. Discussion (10:05): MP3

1. Introduction (2:00): MP3
2. Opening Comments (1:08): MP3
Selections from "VOG," from The Alphabet
3. Of Grammatology [pp. 595] (1:14): MP3
4. Dogs Love Trucks [pp. 708-710] (2:15): MP3
5. Seven Sad Forests [pp. 720] (1:54): MP3
6. (G)hosts [pp. 742-743] (1:14): MP3
7. Woundwood [pp. 735-741] (7:34): MP3

Complete reading (18:03): MP3 (Reading courtesy of Jack Krick.)

Silliman on Williams as part of the "9 Poets Read Themselves through Modernism" event at the Kelly Writers House, October 12, 2000

1. Introduction by Al Filreis (1:17)
2. Introduction by Ron Silliman (1:39)
3. The Desert Music (4:08)
4. The Poet (3:30)
5. To A Dog Injured In The Street (2:12)
6. from Paterson (4:16)
7. from Spring And All (2:53)
8. Untitled work from Crow (3:11)
9. Berkeley (5:31)
10. from Ketjak (2:55)
11. William Carlos Williams reading (2:37)

Segue Series Reading at Double Happiness, May 13, 2000

1. Introduction (1:48): MP3
2. Silliman's Introduction (1:18): MP3
from the "You" section of The Alphabet

3. XVII [pp. 917-918] (2:30): MP3
4. XVIII [pp. 918-919] (for Bob and Francie) (2:34): MP3
5. XXVI [pp. 928-929] (0:39): MP3
6. XXXVIII [pp. 941-942] (for Linh Dinh) (2:44): MP3
7. LII [pp. 955-956] (2:30): MP3
From the "VOG" section of The Alphabet
8. Silence of the Looms [pp. 598-599] (5:14): MP3
9. For Larry Eigner; Silent [pp. 607-609] (4:10): MP3
10. Spiderduck [pp. 613-633] (11:59): MP3

Complete reading (38:22): MP3

"You" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 54.

Reading at SUNY-Buffalo, March 16, 2000

Introduction (11:02): MP3

Paradise (from The Alphabet) [pp. 409-431] (1:05:47): MP3

Discussion with Jena Osman, Al Filreis, Bob Perelman, and Brian Kim Stefans at the Contemporary Avant-Garde Poetry Symposium at the Kelly Writers House, December 7, 1999

1. describing his current poetic practice (1:56): MP3
2. expressing frustration with the generalization that contemporary experimental poetry is abstract (3:24): MP3
3. on Kenneth Goldsmith's 111 (1:35): MP3
4. on Charles Reznikoff's Testimony (1:10): MP3
5. on what motivates his writing (2:15): MP3
6. on ways of reading (2:11): MP3
7. explaining how he got to write avant-garde style poetry based on his educational background (1:44): MP3
8. on poetry and avant-garde music (0:59): MP3
9. on living as consciously as possible and writing (1:03): MP3
10. the uneven relationship between the writer and reader in the activity of making meaning (1:19): MP3
11. feeling encouraged by the community of readers (0:52): MP3

PhillyTalks Episode #3 with Jeff Derksen, January 21, 1998

1. I [p. 903] (1:23): MP3
2. II [pp. 903-904] (1:30): MP3
3. III [pp. 904-905] (1:23): MP3
4. V [p. 906] (1:42): MP3
5. VI [p. 907] (1:47): MP3
6. VII [pp. 907-908] (2:13): MP3
7. VIII [pp. 908-909] (2:07): MP3
8. XII [p. 912] (1:13): MP3
9. XVIII [pp. 918-919] (2:59): MP3
10. XIX [pp. 919-920] (5:11): MP3
11. XXIII [pp. 924-925] (3:12): MP3

Complete recording (24:49): MP3

"You" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 54.

Reading for LIVE at the Writers House, Episode 6, University of Pennsylvania, November 8, 1997

Excerpt from "Oz" (from The Alphabet) [p. 365) (3:27): MP3

Philadelphia (2:45): MP3

The Marginalization of Poetry - an evening of responses to Bob Perelman's recent book of that name from Princeton University Press, with Bob Perelman, Ann Lauterbach, Ron Silliman, Juliana Spahr, and Steve Evans. Moderated by Sean Killian (curated by Sean Killian & Dan Machlin).

Part 1: Watch on Media.sas

Part 2: Watch on Media.sas

1. Introduction (3:05): MP3
2. Opening Comments for "Sunset Debris" (3:43): MP3
3. Sunset Debris (29:05): MP3

Complete Reading (35:50): MP3

Question & Answer Session (37:07): MP3

Reading with Lyn Hejinian, November 6, 1995

Moderated by Bob Perelman

Watch on Media.sas

Alternate angle Watch on Media.sas

Temple University Creative Writing Series, Philadelphia, PA, February 3, 1994

Watch on Media.sas

Buffalo Poetics Program, February 2, 1994

"Jones" and ® from The Alphabet, intro: Charles Bernstein (56:28): MP3

Segue Series Reading at The Ear Inn, January 29, 1994

1. Introduction (1:08): MP3
2. ® ("Circle R") (from The Alphabet) [pp. 441-456] (35:42): MP3

Complete reading (36:46): MP3

Appearing on Live at the Ear Inn, a compilation from Elemenope Productions, 1994

Poetry Project, lecture, c. 1990

video

Appearing on A.L. Nielsen's Incognito Lounge, UC Berkeley, May 23, 1989

• from "Toner" (from The Alphabet) [pp. 481-508] (23:34): MP3

Politics of Poetic Form reading, The New School, NYC, November 11 1988

• lecture (1:12:23): MP3
• discussion (50:01): MP3

Thin Air Lectures with Alice Notley, Bernadette Mayer, and Ron Padgett, St. Marks Church, May 1988

Watch on Media.sas

Complete Recording (55:16): MP3

Segue Series Reading at The Ear Inn, February 15, 1987

1. Opening Comments (2:38): MP3
2. "I am Marion Delgado" (from The Age of Huts) (9:44): MP3
3. last section of "Oz" (from The Alphabet) [pp. 389-407] (26:08): MP3

Complete Reading (38:28): MP3

St. Mark's Talks, NYC April 13, 1986

• a draft of "Postmodernism: Sign for a Struggle, the Struggle for the Sign"


• Poetics Journal, No. 7, September, 1987, pp. 18–39. Reprinted in Contemporary American Poet-Critics, op. cit.; translated into Serbian by Dubravka Djuric and published in Gradina, Vol. 26, No. 2–3, 1991, Nis, Yugoslavia, pp. 162–179


• introduction (3:43): MP3
• Ron Silliman (1:34:33): MP3
• discussion (40:39): MP3

Segue Series Reading at The Ear Inn, NYC April 12, 1986

1. Introduction (1:86): MP3
2. from "Oz" (from The Alphabet) [pp. 365-380] (36:21): MP3

Complete Reading (37:27): MP3

At New Poetics Colloquium, Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, August 22 and 23, 1985

• Reading from Demo Part 1 on August 22, 1985 (20:07): MP3
• Reading from Demo Part 2 on August 23, 1985 (1:27:59): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, NYC April 7, 1984

1. Opening Comments (0:40): MP3
2. "Force" (from The Alphabet) [pp. 43-48] (8:52): MP3
3. Lit: Section One (from The Alphabet) [pp. 225-227] (5:22): MP3
4. Lit: Section Two [pp. 227-238] (16:45): MP3

Complete Reading (31:37): MP3

1. Introduction and Opening Comments (4:33): MP3
2. selection from Tjanting (36:00): MP3

Complete Reading (40:29): MP3

Silliman in conversation with Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein, March 6, 1981

1. oppositional writing (9:09): MP3
2. our relationship to a community and "highbrow" hegemonic culture (6:24): MP3
3. considering the possibility of and what could be defined as ruling class poetry (9:02): MP3
4. writers, class, and downward social mobility (12:01): MP3
5. leisure time, the new flaneur, and the work experience (7:58): MP3
6. the project of writing and dealing with an experience (4:06): MP3
7. group definitions and social formations (7:30): MP3
8. Ron Silliman reading "Poem" by Ron Padgett (0:18): MP3
9. on Ron Padgett's "Poem" (7:26): MP3
10. the break between Black Mountain & St. Mark's and reformulating positions between social groups (6:33): MP3
11. correspondence and conversation (4:05): MP3
12. interpersonal relationships and social formations (14:33): MP3
13. a self assessment of the conversation and tape (8:10): MP3
14. 17th century prose and the "clear style" (4:09): MP3
15. contextualizing and highlighting the political dimensions of the poetry one writes (8:09): MP3
16. on the term "language poetry" and making generalizations (4:50): MP3
17. composition as explanation (4:13): MP3
18. the influence of class background (13:58): MP3

• Part 1 (1:33:20): MP3 (Break around 45:00 - 46:00 when tape flips over.)
• Part 2 (1:32:09): MP3 (Break around 45:00 - 46:00 when tape flips over.)

Complete Recording (3:03:49): MP3 (5-second breaks every 45:00 - 46:00 minutes when the tapes flip over.)

Reading at The Grand Piano June 20, 1978

From Tjanting (44:00): MP3

Residency for Writers Workshop, Talk and Discussion, 1978

• Part 1 (1:00:50): MP3
• Part 2 (1:01:47): MP3
• Part 3 (49:07): MP3

Recordings from the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

• Recording of "Albany," read by Czandra (ModPo Course, Fall 2012) (6:07): MP3
• LEGEND, read by Andrews, Bernstein, DiPalma and Silliman in NYC, March 10, 1981
• Poetry and Empire: Post-Invasion Poetics [Presented at the ICA, University of Pennsylvania, 2003]
      Friday reading, Trouble Ticket (5:32): MP3
      Saturday reading (4:34): MP3
• Discussion with Al Filreis and Bob Perelman after the Bob Cobbing celebration at the Kelly Writers House, October 11, 2007 (5:31): MP3
• Statement made by Rachel Blau DuPlessis for the celebration of Silliman's The Alphabet (February 2009) (10:44): MP3
• Also of note: Video: Birkbeck Poetics Centre, University of London, May 5th 2009
• Discussion with Robert Grenier, Al Filreis, and Bob Perelman on 1959-1964 at the Kelly Writers House, October 27, 2009 (1:16:28) MP3
• Conversation with Alan Golding, Al Filreis, Orchid Tierney and Bob Perelman at the Kelly Writers House, November 19, 2014 (58:22): MP3
• 08 Oikeus ja kohtuus feat. Ron Silliman (from Kenen kieli tämä on? Live 2014): Bandcamp Link

Ron Silliman on PennSound Daily

• February 23, 2009: "A Celebration of Ron Silliman's The Alphabet at the Kelly Writers House"
• February 15, 2009: "A Celebration of Ron Silliman's The Alphabet at the Kelly Writers House"
• September 29, 2008: "Ron Silliman: New Recordings from 1997, 2003"
• April 1, 2008: "Ron Silliman: Two Recent Segue Readings Segmented"
• July 2, 2010: "Hear New U.S. Poet Laureate, W.S. Merwin, on PennSound"

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2004-2016 Ron Silliman. Used with permission of Ron Silliman. Distributed by PennSound.