John Tranter
Under the horizon

John Tranter

Jaime Saenz: Five strange poems, and more ...

Forrest Gander and Kent Johnson, Jacket 8 and Jacket 25

Bolivian poet Jaime Saenz (1921–1986) dressed in a beggar’s jacket.
Bolivian poet Jaime Saenz (1921–1986) dressed in a beggar’s jacket.

Jaime Saenz (1921–1986) is Bolivia’s leading writer of the 20th century. Prolific as poet, novelist, and non-fiction writer, his baroque, propulsive syntax and dedication to themes of death, alcoholism, and otherness make his poetry among the most idiosyncratic in the Spanish-speaking world.

[»»] Jaime Saenz: Five poems from: As the Comet Passes, translated by Kent Johnson and Forrest Gander

[»»] Jaime Saenz: excerpts from: Immanent Visitor, translated by Kent Johnson and Forrest Gander

[»»] Forrest Gander and Kent Johnson: Jaime Saenz — Some Days in the Life of The Night: Notes from Bolivia, June 20–30, 2004

“It was with a human leg that Jaime Saenz, Bolivia’s visionary and most influential poet, came home from the university. Still living with his mother. Death, his constant companion.


December 30, 2012

Four women poets in Jacket 33

Kathleen Fraser, Alison Knowles, Eleni Sikelianos, Catherine Wagner

Kathleen Fraser, 1964
Kathleen Fraser, 1964

[»»] Kathleen Fraser in conversation with Sarah Rosenthal, 2007
“SR: Silence has been a central trope in your writing since early on. It carries a range of meanings, from erasure to grief and loss to the spaciousness of an open field. Perhaps we could trace some of the ways in which silence has come up in your work over time.”
[»»] Alison Knowles in conversation with Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, September 2006. Alison Knowles is a visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, publications and association with Fluxus, the experimental avant-garde group formally founded in 1962.
[»»] Eleni Sikelianos, author of The California Poem, in conversation with Jesse Morse
[»»] Catherine Wagner in conversation with Nathan Smith, 13 April 2007

December 27, 2012

Feature: A Tonalist poetry

105 printed pages, in Jacket 40

Atonalist icon
Atonalist icon

What is A Tonalist? The short answer is that it is in some (uncomfortable) way related to lyric, retaining doubt about the possibility of engaging in and with that vexed genre … As you read these poems, you can watch as place is found, made, questioned, left and reasserted … There is also a lot of sex and a huge number of amazing verbs … (from Laura Moriarty’s Introduction)

[»»] Laura Moriarty: A Tonalist Where (and What) Art Thou?
[»»] Taylor Brady: Maps, Jokes and Heavy Armor
[»»] Julian T. Brolaski: Five poems
[»»] Norma Cole: from “More Facts” 
[»»] Brent Cunningham: A Note on the A Tonalist
[»»] Jean Daive: “A Woman with Several Lives,” Tr. Norma Cole
[»»] Ray DiPalma: Obloquium and Committer of Tidings: Seven poems
[»»] Dolores Dorantes: from “Dear Factory” translated by Jen Hofer

December 21, 2012