John Ashbery, 1927–2017

Here at Jacket2 we were saddened to learn of John Ashbery’s passing at age 90 this weekend. A prolific and visionary poet, Ashbery has captivated us from the very beginning; few could imagine contemporary poetics without him. Today, we look back at some of our celebrations of Ashbery at Jacket, Jacket2, and PennSound. 

Our front-page Archive section is currently all-Ashbery; it’s replicated below:

Ashbery on Jane Freilicher and on being an art critic
Traveling furiously toward you
Ashbery: Demotic grace
John Ashbery in conversation on Close Listening
Ashbery: 64 indispensible poems
Ashbery on memory and aging
Ashbery’s silences sampled
Ashbery on the decision to write short vs. long poems (and more)
Ashbery actually explicates
The beginnings concept (PoemTalk #9)

More J2 content on Ashbery can be found in the related content links at the end of this post. For additional readings and interviews, Ashbery’s PennSound page is an invaluable resource. For work by and on Ashbery in the original Jacket, see the links below:

John Ashbery, John Kinsella, and John Tranter: Nine Ern Malley Poems
The Burden of the Park
The Hod Carrier
Escaping the future: John Ashbery’s ‘Girls on the run’
Normalizing John Ashbery
Lives and Art: John Ashbery and Henry Darger
John Ashbery in conversation with John Tranter, New York City, May 1988
John Ashbery in conversation with John Tranter, New York City, April 1985
Three John Ashberys
Tom Clark reviews 100 Multiple-Choice Questions by John Ashbery
Harriet Zinnes reviews Chinese Whispers by John Ashbery
The Perils of Just Aimlessly Sitting
Oh, This Old Thing?
Reality Show: Ninnies and the Critics
Ramez Qureshi reviews Your Name Here by John Ashbery

Finally, those of us in Philadelphia fondly remember Ashbery’s visits to the Kelly Writers House in 2002 and 2013; the readings and conversations that took place for Ashbery’s Writers House Fellows visits can be found here:

John Ashbery’s 2002 reading and conversation
John Ashbery’s 2013 reading
John Ashbery and Al Filreis in conversation, 2013