'Patterns / Contexts / Time': A symposium on Contemporary Poetry, ed. Phillip Foss and Charles Bernstein (1990)

Free pdf

Twenty-five years ago Phillip Foss and I edited this issues Tyuonyi (6/7 1990), now available from the EPC Digital Library as a free pdf.  (236pp.)  

Phil introduced the issue this way:
This issue of Tyuonyi, Patterns / Contexts / Time: A Symposium on Contemporary Poetry, exists because of collective desire. Ninety-seven poets from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, England, and Australia felt the desire to respond. Their responses were to a series of questions devised by Charles Bernstein and myself. The questions were designed to be inclusive enough to address the issues which engaged us, but vague enough not to restrict the potential responses of the respondents. We wanted to create a forum wherein the real issues that compelled poets could be addressed without a felt adherence to any presuppositions. The volume of response was very gratifying and the range of response far beyond my expectation. 

THE QUESTIONS:
•What patterns, if any, do you see developing that are presently influencing habits of reading or readership within poetry?
•What are the values or limitations of these developing, or undeveloped, patterns?
•What context, if any, do you see your work as part of?
•What context, if any, do you see for the work of those contemporary poets whom you find most interesting?
•What's the most disturbing (or irritating) thing associated with poetry or your work as a poet?
•What sources do you find most useful in keeping informed about contemporary poetry?
•Do universities play any role for you in terms of your work as a poet?
•Do you ever think about what you will be doing in ten years? What? etc etc.

TYUONYI is a Keresan word meaning, the meeting place and is the name of a major prehistoric ruin in northern New Mexico.

The respondents:

  • Charles Alexander
  • Bruce Andrews
  • Rae Armantrout
  • Tom Beckett
  • Dodie Bellamy
  • Steve Benson
  • Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
  • Javant Biarujia
  • Julia Blumenreich
  • George Bowering
  • David Bromige
  • Lee Ann Brown
  • Don Byrd
  • John Byrum
  • Norma Cole
  • Jack Collom
  • Robert Creeley
  • Michael Davidson
  • Alan Davies
  • Jeff Derksen
  • Ray Di Palma
  • Johanna Drucker
  • Rachel DuPlessis
  • Larry Eigner
  • Elaine Equi
  • Norman Fischer
  • Robert Fitterman
  • Benjamin Friedlander
  • Gene Frumkin
  • William Fuller
  • Forrest Gander
  • Peter Ganick
  • David C. D. Gansz
  • Jeffery Gburek
  • Michael Gizzi
  • Peter Gizzi
  • Robert Gluck
  • Janet Gray
  • Paul Green
  • Tony Green
  • Robert Grenier
  • Jessica Grim
  • Douglas Gunn
  • Charles Hartman
  • Michael Helsem
  • Crag Hill
  • Benjamin Hollander
  • Bob Holman
  • Paul Hoover
  • Roger Horrocks
  • Karl Jirgens
  • Ronald Johnson
  • Patricia Spears Jones
  • Pierre Joris
  • Jeffrey Jullich
  • Robert Kelly
  • Kevin Killian
  • Ralph La Charity
  • Peter Larkin
  • Ann Lauterbach
  • Hank Lazar
  • Gary Lenhart
  • Andrew Levy
  • Jackson Mac Low
  • D.S. Marriott
  • Christopher Merrill
  • Sheila Murphy
  • Eileen Myles
  • Melanie Neilson
  • Gil Ott
  • Ron Padgett
  • Michael Palmer
  • John Perlman
  • Nick Piombino
  • Stephen Ratcliffe
  • Tom Raworth
  • Joan Retallack
  • Kit Robinson
  • Janet Rodney
  • Tom Savage
  • Leslie Scalapino
  • Andrew Schelling
  • Spencer Selby
  • David Sheidlower
  • Robert Sheppard
  • James Sherry
  • Aaron Shurin
  • Lawrence Smith
  • Rod Smith
  • David Sternbach
  • David Levy Strauss
  • Arthur Sze
  • Fred Wah
  • Anne Waldman
  • Lewis Warsh
  • Hannah Weiner
  • Don Wellman

pdf of issue
EPC Digital Library

thanks to Danny Snelson for making the digital edition.