Peter Orlovsky, Allen’s beloved life-time partner, was born on this day. We remember him fondly. See, for example – here and here and here – and elsewhere
Here‘s Peter, from back in 1979, reading his poems at the Vivo Media Arts Center in Vancouver
Thrilled to be able to announce the publication of the 1,000-page monumental Collected Poems of Gary Snyder, edited by Anthony Hunt and Jack Shoemaker, just recently published by the Library of America
The editors at Library of America note:
“With this Library of America edition, Snyder’s poetry has been collected for the first time in a single, authoritative volume, prepared in close collaboration with the author. Here are all eleven books of poetry in their original order of publication, spanning the entire arc of his long career from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems(1959/1965) to This Present Moment (2016), along with many uncollected poems, drafts, fragments, and translations in newly authoritative texts reflecting Snyder’s corrections and revisions.”
“Rounding out the volume is a selection of more than fifty rarities—from little magazines, chapbooks, broadsides, and rediscovered manuscripts—including nine poems published here for the first time.” (read three of them here)
See a full listing of the table of contents – here
Read Keith Taylor‘s early review – here
Last week we noted Kirby Olson’s ruminations on Allen’s politics that appeared earlier this month in Beatdom and Eliot Katz‘s response. This week Eliot’s thoughts and analysis can be read in more detail – here. (and don’t miss the lively debate – Kirby responds, Eliot responds – in the “Comments” section)
also on Beatdom, editor David S Wills writes on ruth weiss. Wills reviews Melody C Miller‘s recent full-length documentary, ruth weiss- The Beat Goddess – see here
Beat Times – Temporalities in Beat Writing – the preliminary program for the European Beat Studies Network‘s 11th Annual Conference scheduled for September (this time in Murcia, Spain) has just been announced
Kenward Elmslie tomorrow (Saturday) – remembering Elmslie on The Allen Ginsberg Project
Re my debate on beatdom.com with Kirby Olson, mentioned in the blog post above: On one hand, I found it kind of charming that an admittedly right-wing, pro-Reagan Republican literary scholar would try to find ways to rationalize an appreciation for a lifelong poet of the democratic left like Allen Ginsberg. On the other hand, with me being a next-generations poet and activist whose poetry and democratic-left activism Allen had supported from the early 1980s up until his death in 1997, I thought it was important to challenge Kirby’s contention that Allen had ever become an apolitical or a centrist poet—and to be honest, I’m not totally sure which of the two Kirby was contending.