This interview with Robyn Schiff about her book Revolver was conducted during the week of May 18th, 2009 by eight poets: Christine Pacyk, Aaron Delee, Nicole Gallicchio, Andrew Galligan, Sarah Jenkins, Joshua Lobb, Lana Rakhman and Rose Woodson.
Q: When reading Revolver, I noticed that nearly every poem had something to do with an invention, including the envelope machine, the Singer Sewing machine, McCormick's Reaper, and even the revolver itself. Which poem was written first? Did you originally intend on writing a series? If so, how did this series evolve? How do you come choose the images of the antiques that you describe in your poetry?
Robyn Schiff:
The first poem I worked on was "Colt Rapid Fire Revolver." I wrote it as the United States was gearing up toward the invasion of Iraq, and it set the tone and helped determine the content for the other poems in the collection. I was interested in invention and destruction, but also displays of power because this was the immediate post-9/11period, and there was all this chest-beating patriotism going on and solidarity expressed on bumper stickers.
http://www.newschool.edu/writing/faculty.aspx?id=23882 Robert Polito
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=bio&bookkey=321460
http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Phoenix-Poets-Robert-Polito/dp/0226673391
In James Elkins's great book Stories of Art, he discusses various personalized "visions" of art history. I would like to cite and highlight one important paragraph here.
Discussing widespread ahistoricism in internationalist, or what I would term "academicist," Postmodernism, Elkins writes:
"(The list of periods might look like this):
Art History (No subdivisions) The Present
Psychologically, such a radically collapsed sense of history is a great relief for people burdened by a nagging sense of the importance of history. Suddenly, all art is possible, and nothing needs to be studied. ... Some art historians who work exclusively on contemporary art feel the same exhilaration: they can apply any theories they want, interpret in any fashion they choose, and cite or ignore precedents at will. But as Milan Kundera might say, sooner or later the apparent lightness of art history reveals itself as an "unbearable lightness," and finally as an unbearable burden."
This interview with Kristy Bowen about her book in the bird museum was conducted during the week of May 11th, 2009 by eight poets: Christine Pacyk, Aaron Delee, Nicole Gallicchio, Andrew Galligan, Sarah Jenkins, Joshua Lobb, Lana Rakhman and Rose Woodson.
Q: In your collection of poems in the bird museum, you experiment considerably with form. During the initial draft of a poem, does the form present itself to you as a means to experiment, or is form secondary to either the language choices you make or the thematic significance you're going for? Did you have a specific goal in mind while putting the book together or was the layout the result of a natural tendency for you to experiment with language and forms?
Kristy Bowen: In most cases, those poems that play with formal constructs (glossaries, footnotes, mathematical equations) always seem easier to write, largely because one is basically limited somewhat by the circumstances of the form and those limitations are oddly comforting. The entire first section of the book, most of which was originally a chapbook called errata, was written as an exploration of "feminine" vs. "masculine" texts, or modes of writing, so I had a list of things that I wanted to try out--poem as etiquette manual, poem as textbook, poem as concordance.
I hate to admit it, cranky as I am, as much as I did not want to like it, I have experienced a marvelous new contemporary space here in Chicago. A space that with an economy of means, employing the most modest of building materials, with a sense of purpose and an adherence to that purpose conflated in its vision, is simply dazzling. As you wander through the spacious produce section, or stop for a nosh at any one of the fabulous food islands,
A small story about why you should be there and why I have to be there!
Hello again Shark Forum. Haven't had a chance to write on here for a while as it basically slipped and slipped even further away from my mind. Also, I think for the most part, SF is about the visual art world and not so much the sonic one. Sharkboy has always insisted that ain't true and says it's because Rizzo and I are too lazy to write anything. There's a bit of truth there as well. It's also a lot more fun to piss off Sharkboy than to please him. That's another good reason not to write. I think the best reason to write, though, is when there's an event or show worth something to me and that I think would be a shame to miss. I was lucky enough to find out that guitarist and songwriter Richard Lloyd was going to play the Abbey Pub on May 9th by Sean Duffy, who books the club and asked if I'd open the show. It didn't take my band and me long to say yes.
Now would be cheap.
Sotheby's stocks have fallen almost 90 percent! Their profit fell to "only" $28.3 million, the worst result since 2003. You could get them for a song!
As Christi Nielson responded to Sherwin's latest great art post, "A colleague of mine once said 'they're trying to lock the doors to a building where walls no longer exist.' "
Sherwin on myartspaceblog:
I've read some buzz about the ArtPrize competition. A few art critics and NYC art dealers have called it a sign of desperation rather than an opportunity for artists-- implying that anyone who enters it is 'just desperate'. In fact, one critic of the competition-- András Szántó -- suggested that anyone who wins the competition will never be accepted in the mainstream art world.
András Szántó also suggested that the $400,000+ cash prize should have been donated to existing art programs or as grants to artists who are represented by notable galleries. He actually made the case that only a select few should dictate what is 'good' art or 'bad' art instead of the general public-- backing the idea that only certain individuals are capable of understanding or appreciating art.
Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius." But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.
Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients, among them the people you and I would consider the best and brightest. Business leaders, celebrities, charities, even some of his own relatives and his defense attorney were taken for a ride (this has to be the first time a lawyer was hosed by the client).
We're clearly in one of those historic, game changing years: up is down, red is blue and black is President. Aside from Obama himself, no person will provide a more iconic face of this end-of-capitalism-as-we-know-it year than Bernard Lawrence Madoff.
Jennifer Kronovet is co-founder of CIRCUMFERENCE, the journal of poetry in translation. She received an MFA in Poetry from Washington University and MA in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University Teachers College. Her publications include Colorado Review, Pleiades, and Ploughshares. She has lived in Beijing, Chicago, and St. Louis, and currently in New York City, where she was born and raised.
Awayward received the A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2009).
Art by 
http://www.newschool.edu/writing/faculty.aspx?id=23882 Robert Polito
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=bio&bookkey=321460
http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Phoenix-Poets-Robert-Polito/dp/0226673391
