Jeff Ball’s latest acquisition—a first-edition copy of “The Exterminator”— is not only signed by both William Burroughs and Brion Gysin but has original artwork that Gysin drew and signed on an inside page. “I’m giddy!” says Ball, whose collection of rare first editions by Burroughs and associated writers, includes some of the most hard-to-find materials anywhere.
Speaking of Translation
“My texts belong to the world / Even when they are forged copies / My translators complain of climbing steps to attics / They complain of sifting through the debris in basements / They complain over the endless boxes stored / In countries that don’t even allow them entry / A watchdog guards a box somewhere in Moscow / An irate lover protects another box / My translators complain of bad backs and dust / One translator complained because of the food …” —William ‘Cody’ Maher
Genes of Irish Genius in ‘Blooming Molly Malone’
A friend writes: A little re-Joyceing in this wee lonesome blooming Molly Malone. You can hear the genes of Irish genius in the DNABC of this little clamourer. You feel she’s on the verge of channelling Beckett, Behan, O’Casey, O’Brien, Yeats et al, at any moment. A true antidote to popery and nunnery, and the cold, cold kiss of Covid. A little four-leaf clover complaining from beneath the cloven hoof of parental devilry. She must have been fed Guinness in the womb, there’s so much blarney in her tongue. Man, you feel she possesses such alchemical witchery, she could eat Covid, and shit it out the other end as an emerald. A rare little island of hope.
For Carl Weissner’s Would-Be 80th
Coming on June 16th: “Death in Marseille,” the last words of Arthur Rimbaud as imagined by Carl Weissner. To be published in a limited handmade edition designed by Gerard Bellaart, and translated and edited from the German by Keith Seward & Jan Herman.
Moloko+ Releases Maher’s New Poems in Bilingual Edition
“This is a partial autobiography. The important things are missing.” — William Cody Maher
The collection includes photographs by Signe Mähler. The German translations are by Walter Hartmann.
The poet reads an excerpt from his poem, “Pornography.”
Clayton With a Period, Full Stop
Over the years two dozen items about or related to Clayton Patterson have appeared on this blog. It’s an indication of the staff’s interest in his cultural significance. Patterson’s importance in general, but especially on the Lower East Side of New York City, comes from his commitment to social and political values for the good of his community. He has put his life on the line to document and preserve it in a way that few are brave enough to do. Now his role as both activist and outsider artist in his own right is the subject of a new book, titled simply Clayton.—yes, with a period—full stop. For those who know him, or of him, his name alone is sufficient to tell the story. For those who don’t, Permuted Press has gathered a group of remarkable graphic artists to tell it.
Jürgen Ploog, R.I.P.
He died at home in Frankfurt, peacefully, surrounded by family. Jürgen Ploog was 85. “Jay,” the name he went by among close friends, was widely regarded as one of Germany’s premiere second-generation Beat writers. But his narrative fiction—like that of William S. Burroughs, a mentor with whom he was associated—was more experimental and closer to Brion Gysin’s or J.G. Ballard’s than to Jack Kerouac’s or Allen Ginsberg’s.
Jay called his style “cut prose,” an adventurous collage technique developed from the cut-up methods formulated by Burroughs and Gysin back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was a gifted visual collagist as well, producing hybrid works in recent years such as Flesh Film, a fever dream of a novella originally published in a digital prose-only edition by realitystudio.org, and subsequently perfected in print by Moloko+.
GC CUNY Keeps the Conversation Going:
Six Fast-Paced Doctoral Presentations on Diverse Topics from Solar Energy to Anti-Corruption Laws
Tune in today—Tuesday @ 7:30 p.m.—for a 30-minute online showcase in TED-style talks.
Borges: ‘To Whoever Is Reading Me’
You are invulnerable. Have they not granted you,
those powers that preordain your destiny,
the certainty of dust? [. . .]
Dark, you will enter the darkness that awaits you,
doomed to the limits of your traveled time.
Know that in some sense you are already dead.
Bill Murray Takes a Cue from Nancy
He masks up in his bathtub too.
Michael McClure, R.I.P.
Dead at 87, he was foremost a poet, but also a playwright, essayist, and novelist.
Nancy Masks Up in Her Bathtub
She’s taking no chances. Gary Lee-Nova has been exploring Bushmiller’s work for many years. This particular effort originated in an email exchange with Denis Kitchen who founded Kitchen Sink Press. Kitchen Sink published five volumes of Bushmiller’s work during the 1980s and ’90s. “We’ve been internet pals for several years,” Lee-Nova says. During the early […]
GC CUNY Keeps the Conversation Going:
‘The Future of Health Care’ featuring Margot Sanger-Katz, Jonathan Gruber, Avik Roy, and Dana Singiser; also the Eminent Author Anne Carson on Greek Tragedy
While events are postponed at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York in the heart of Manhattan, videos of recent public programs from its archive will be featured here for your enjoyment. The videos offer illuminating discussions in two main categories: insights into current events and conversations with leading writers and artists.
GC CUNY Keeps the Conversation Going:
Andrew Yang, Leslie McCall, and Richard Reeves
on Capitalism and Democracy; also,
Authors Julia Alvarez and Elizabeth Acevedo
on Craft, Legacy, and Literature
While events are postponed at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York in the heart of Manhattan, videos of recent public programs from its archive will be featured here for your enjoyment. The videos offer illuminating discussions in two main categories: insights into current events and conversations with leading writers and artists.
Before April Slips Away
A friend who lives deep in the French countryside was listening to the radio the other day when she heard a poem by Baudelaire, called “Avril.” She spent the entire day trying to trace it and finally emailed Radio France to ask where she could read it. The answer came. But there’s a surprising kicker.
GC CUNY Keeps the Conversation Going:
Racism and Democracy; also biographer
David Nasaw on the moguls Joseph P. Kennedy,
Andrew Carnegie, and William Randolph Hearst
While events are postponed at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York in the heart of Manhattan, videos of recent public programs from its archive will be featured here for your enjoyment. The videos offer illuminating discussions in two main categories: insights into current events and conversations with leading writers and artists.
Just an Arbitrary Notion
for a useful meaning
no starched collar
inked his lines
nor the uptight
narrowness
of the familiar
bank clerk