Fall 2014 Schedule
Interested members of the Yale University community are invited to join the Whitney Humanities Center / Beinecke Library Working Group in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics (WGCP). The Group meets Fridays at 3:00pm in room B 04 at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University (the corner of Church and Wall) to discuss problems and issues of contemporary poetry within international alternative and / or avant-garde traditions of lyric poetry. Subscribe to the WGCP list for updates: WGCP List-serv.
Fall 2014 Schedule
September 12 — Discussion of Ann Lauterbach’s work
Readings (to be distributed shortly): Under the Sign by Ann Lauterbach
September 26 — Ann Lauterbach Visit
Readings: Under the Sign by Ann Lauterbach
October 3 — Discussion of Forrest Gander’s work
Readings (to be distributed shortly): Core Samples from the World by Forrest Gander
October 17 — Forrest Gander Visit
Readings: Core Samples from the World by Forrest Gander
November 21 — Discussion of Frank Bidart’s work
Readings: Metaphysical Dog
December 5 — Frank Bidart Visit
Readings: Metaphysical Dog
The Whitney Humanities Center/Beinecke Library Working Group in Contemporary Poetry returns in September! Please check back for additional details and event confirmation
Charles Bernstein to Visit WGCP
Charles Bernstein will be at Yale on February 27 & 28. Professor Bernstein will be giving a talk entitled “The Pitch of Poetry” in the English Department at 4 PM in room 317 of LC. The following afternoon, he will join the WGCP in room 116 of the WHC from 3-5.
Save the Dates: Fall 2013 Readings at Beinecke Library
Mark your calendars: the following events may be of interest to WGCP members…
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John Koethe, Poetry Reading
Tuesday, October 8, 4:00 pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street
Yale Collection of American Literature Reading Series
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
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John Ashbery, Poetry Reading
Tuesday, November 12, 4:00 pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street
Yale Collection of American Literature Reading Series
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
* * *
Susan Stewart, Poetry Reading
Wednesday, December 4, 4:00 pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street
Co-Sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center and
the Yale Collection of American Literature Reading Series
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
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April 5: Alice Notley
The WGCP will meet with poet Alice Notley to discuss her work , specifically one of her latest collections, Culture of One, on Friday, April 19 at 3 PM-5PM in room B04 of the Whitney Humanities Center. Below please find a series of questions that are drawn from the WGCP’s recent conversation about Culture of One. These questions will serve as a kind of framework for our next session.
Notley will be giving a reading at the Beinecke the day before, Thursday the 18 at 4 PM. (more information: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/about/blogs/poetry-beinecke-library/2013/04/01/alice-notley-poetry-reading)
Questions for Alice Notley from Yale Poetics Seminar to be held Friday April 19, from 3 PM-5PM
1). In looking through Culture of One, a reader can trace a number of threads pulled from various cultures and belief systems. For instance, not only are there allusions and gestures drawn from the Western Canon and Judeo-Christian beliefs, but also references to Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. Could you say something about your relationship to these Eastern belief systems? What role do they play in your thinking about Culture of One?
2) Given that there is a sort of loose conception of narrative (one continually reshaped by an investment in lyric and song, would you say something about the compositional process of writing Culture of One. For example, was there a structure in place before you began? Were you continually ordering and reordering poems? Were the opening poems (before Marie actually appears) written first? Last?
3) How do you see your thoughts about epic—and specifically a feminine epic—having evolved over the years? Is Culture of One a collection that addresses that mode? Is Culture of One consciously a response to Eliot’s “The Wasteland”? What were other models you borrowed from?
4) Do you have a sense of audience in mind when you write? Given the depth of some of the allusions, do you imagine an audience that will get all these? What is your thinking about a reader’s responsibility to a text?
5) What do you see as the cultural role of poetry and the poet, specifically in our contemporary moment?
6) What do you see as the tone of the collection? How were you trying to establish this? Particularly there was discussion about the final poem and whether you yourself see this as a kind hopeful and redemptive moment, or whether it suggests that Marie is exiled to herself (rather than liberated). This isn’t a question intending for to elicit and explanation. Instead, it is directed towards your sense of what constitutes a culture of one and if you wanted to write towards that or bring its possibilities into question.
Upcoming WGCP-Related Events
The following April events at Yale may be of interest to WGCP members:
Alice Notley, Poetry Reading
Thursday, April 18, 4:00pm
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven, CT 06511
More information: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/about/blogs/poetry-beinecke-library/2013/04/01/alice-notley-poetry-reading
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Gallery Talk with Susan Howe
Monday, April 15 at 4pm
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven, CT 06511
2011 winner of the Bollingen Prize in American Poetry discusses Sarah Pierpont Edwards’ wedding dress
More Information: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/about/blogs/poetry-beinecke-library-yale-collection-american-literature/2013/04/09/gallery-talk ; in conjunction wiht the exhibtion By Hand
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Meena Alexander, “Resolved: That Poets Are the Unacknowledged Legislators of the World”
Monday, April 23, 7:30pm
YPU Debates: http://theypu.com/events/
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WGCP Meetings and Related Events: Spring 2013
A preliminary schedule of meetings and events for Spring 2013…Check back for details and confirmation.
WGCP Meeting: Discussion of the work of David Lehman
Readings: Yeshiva Boys (to be distributed)
UPDATE: Friday, February 1, 3:00 pm
WHC Room B 04, 53 Wall Street
WGCP Meeting with David Lehman
Readings: Yeshiva Boys (to be distributed)
Friday, February 8, 3:00 pm
WHC Room B 04, 53 Wall Street
WGCP Meeting: Discussion of the work of Lisa Robertson
Readings to be distributed
Friday, February 15, 3:00 pm
WHC Room B 04, 53 Wall Street
Related Event: Small Press Reading Room
Friday, February 22, 3:00-4:00 pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street, room 38-39
Co-Sponsored by the Yale Collection of American Literature and the Yale Lit
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
Related Event: Lisa Robertson, Poetry Reading
Thursday, February 28, 7:00 pm
Room 317, Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High Street
Grad Poets Reading Series
Contacts: justin.sider@yale.edu, sarah.stone@yale.edu
WGCP Meeting with Lisa Robertson
Readings to be distributed
Friday, March 1, 3:00 pm
WHC Room B 04, 53 Wall Street
Ron Padgett, Poetry Reading
Thursday, April 4 at 7:00, LC 317
Grad Poets Reading Series, co sponsored by Beinecke Library
Contacts: justin.sider@yale.edu, sarah.stone@yale.edu
Related Event: Yale Student Poets Annual Reading
Tuesday, April 9, 4:00 pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street
Yale Collection of American Literature Reading Series
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
WGCP Meeting: Discussion of the work of Alice Notley
Readings to be distributed
Friday, April 5, 3:00 pm
WHC Room B 04, 53 Wall Street
Related Event: Alice Notley, Poetry Reading
Thursday, April 18, 4:00 pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street
Yale Collection of American Literature Reading Series
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
WGCP Meeting with Alice Notley
Readings to be distributed
Friday, April 19, 3:00 pm
WHC Room B 04, 53 Wall Street
John Koethe Joins WGCP
Poet John Koethe will join the next WGCP meeting to discuss his recent book ROTC Kills: Friday, December 7, 3-5pm, at the Whitney Humanities Center, room B04.
Jan Wagner @ WGCP
On Friday, October 26 the WGCP will meet at 3 PM to continue our discussion of the work of Jan Wagner, one of Germany’s foremost poets. Wagner will be joining us in person for this conversation about his work. The session will take place in Room B04 of the Whitney Humanities Center. The room is in the basement at the end of the hallway.
Friday, October 12
WGCP Meeting: Discussion of the work of Jan Wagner
Readings to be distributed
Friday, October 12, 3pm
NOTE ROOM CHANGE: WHC Room B04, 53 Wall Street
Readings: Jan Wagner WGCP Readings
Wagner will join the WGCP for a conversation about his work and contemporary German poetry on October 26.
About Jan Wagner
Jan Wagner was born 1971 in Hamburg and has been living in Berlin since 1995. He is a poet, a translator of Anglo-American poetry (Charles Simic, James Tate, Simon Armitage, Matthew Sweeney, Jo Shapcott, Robin Robertson, Michael Hamburger, Dan Chiasson and many others), a literary critic (Frankfurter Rundschau, Der Tagesspiegel and others) and has been, until 2003, a co-publisher of the international literature box Die Aussenseite des Elementes („The Outside of the Element“). Apart from numerous appearances in anthologies and magazines, he has published the poetry collections Probebohrung im Himmel („A Trial Drill in the Sky“; Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2001), Guerickes Sperling („Guericke’s Sparrow“, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2004), Achtzehn Pasteten (“Eighteen Pies”, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2007) and Australien (“Australia”, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2010) and, as translator and editor, collections of selected poems by James Tate, Der falsche Weg nach Hause („The Wrong Way Home“, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2004), Matthew Sweeney, Rosa Milch (“Pink Milk”, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2008) and Simon Armitage („Zoom!“, 2011). With the poet Björn Kuhligk he edited the comprehensive anthologies of young German language poetry Lyrik von Jetzt. 74 Stimmen („Poetry of Now. 74 voices“, Dumont Verlag, Cologne 2003) and its sequel Lyrik von Jetzt zwei. 50 Stimmen (Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2008) and co-operated on the book Der Wald im Zimmer. Eine Harzreise (“A Forest Inside the Room. A Journey Across the Harz Mountains”, Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2007), an hommage to Heinrich Heine. A selection of his essays, Die Sandale des Propheten. Beiläufige Prosa (“The Prophet’s Sandal. Incidental Prose”), was published 2011 by Berlin Verlag. For his poetry, which has been translated into thirty languages, he has received various scholarships (2002 in the Künstlerhaus Edenkoben, 2004 as Heinrich-Heine-resident in Lüneburg, 2008 as „writer-in-residence“ at Oberlin College, Ohio/USA, and 2011 in the German Academy in Rome/Villa Massimo, among others) and literary awards, most recently the Alfred Gruber Award (2004), the Mondsee Poetry Award (2004), the Anna-Seghers-Award (2004), the Ernst-Meister-Award for Poetry (2005), the Arno-Reinfrank-Award (2006), the Wilhelm-Lehmann-Award (2009), the Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis of the city of Tübingen (2011) and the Kranichsteiner Literaturpreis (2011).
Jan Wagner reading (auf Deutsch, natürlich): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErFZM2nWOpA
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