Friday, September 12, 2008

writing through modernism circa 2000

Back in the fall of 2000 we invited nine poets to "read through" their relationship to a modernist poet. They talked and read their own and that modernist's poems. Each presented for 20 minutes. We recorded the events (three nights) and made audio recordings available (then in RealAudio format). In the past few months one of our digital editors, the masterful Mike Van Helder, organized all this material, converted the streaming RealAudio files into downloadable mp3s, made the links really easy to use, and copied the poem files onto the PennSound author page of each of the nine poets.

The newly designed "Nine Poets Read Themselves through Modernism" page is here: LINK

Lyn Hejinian on Stein
Ron Silliman on Williams
Joan Retallack on Stein, Wittgenstein and Cage
Charles Bernstein on Benjamin
Rachel Blau DuPlessis on Woolf
Erica Hunt on Beckett and Baldwin
Jena Osman on Reznikoff
Bob Perelman on Zukofsky
Rae Armantrout on Dickinson

The idea for the project was Bob Perelman's. Kerry Sherin Wright and I hosted and introduced.