Listening to Braille

In her recent article in the New York Times Magazine, “Listening to Braille,” Rachel Aviv quotes a writing excerpt from a sixteen-year-old blind student whose literacy has developed through aural/oral means, without the benefit of braille. This single excerpt is meant to stand as damning evidence of the failure of oral-based literacy:

He looked in the [...]

Christopher Schmidt on Living Writers

Tune in today to hear Christopher Schmidt read from his debut book of
poems “The Next in Line” winner of the 2007 Slope Editions Book Prize.
We’ll talk about blogs, journalism, and a 20th century poetry
dissertation entitled “Waste Matters.”
We’ll also talk about his recent move from Brooklyn to Ann Arbor, his
work at Sweetland Writing Center at the [...]

Hype: The Next in Line reviewed

Jason Schneiderman reviews The Next in Line for Coldfrontmag.com.
Highlights:
“The vision of the erotic that Schmidt offers is surprisingly friendly and refreshingly playful.”
“Schmidt’s touch is so light, it feels like he’s rediscovered the harpsichord in a time of Thelonius Monk imitators.”
“Schmidt’s debut collection is a remarkable accomplishment—clever, smart, and emotionally satisfying.”

Click here to read the review.
Thanks, [...]

Something's comin'

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Interdisciplinary Transcription journal

Andy Fitch and Jon Cotner have assembled a stellar cast of poets, critics, and artists for a special issue of Intervalles on “Interdisciplinary Transcription.” I’m honored to be included. Most contributors have submitted creative work, but mine is a critical essay about Andy Warhol and his transcription practice, adapted from my dissertation. (It’s in PDF [...]

The Next in Line published

My first book of poems, The Next in Line, is now available for purchase at SPD (small press distribution) and Amazon.

Jack Spicer

My review of Jack Spicer’s My Vocabulary Did This To Me, from Time Out New York:

Jack Spicer’s poetic talent was both a burden and a kind of magic. Like Blake and Yeats before him, this Bay Area figurehead believed that his poems were dictations from the “spooks” and “martians” of the spirit world. When Spicer [...]

Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell

My review of their correspondence, for Time Out New York:
“Do / you still hang your words in air, ten years / unfinished.…” Those lines are Robert Lowell’s, from a poem honoring Elizabeth Bishop’s exemplary forbearance. As a title to this lovely, if exhausting, collection of the poets’ 30-year correspondence, Words in Air takes on new meaning, evoking the perilous [...]

Review: Frank Bidart's Watching the Spring Festival

The Problem with Unity

Paul Krugman, in his latest op-ed column, offers up a rational but untenable solution to the Democratic primary impasse: that Obama should select Clinton as his running mate. Krugman’s proposal isn’t itself convincing. Clinton would bring all her negative baggage to the ticket without, it seems, offering any substantial lift. But the basis of Krugman’s [...]

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