Hierarchy: A Night

The Piquerary twins remain, for the English-speaking world, among the undiscovered gems of Belgian surrealist writing, despite the presence of their work in Poetry magazine, Exquisite Corpse, and elsewhere.  I wrote a short introduction to their work a few years ago, for those who might be interested.  But perhaps the best way to get to know Gabriel and Marcel Piqueray is from this wonderful reading of a prose poem of theirs I translated with Jean-Luc Garneau.  It's an odd piece, more or less in the mode of Kafka's parables, and is read, here, by the actor Samuel West.

Belgian Surrealism Conquers the Airwaves! I Become Janet Malcom!

What could possibly be better than midcentury Belgian surrealist prose poetry?  Belgian surrealist prose poetry read on the BBC!  Zip forward to the 1:02 mark of this BBC "Words and Music" broadcast to hear the great Samuel West read a translation I did with Jean-Luc Garneau of "Hierarchy: A Night," a little Kafkaesque number by Gabriel and Marcel Piqueray.

In other news, Ian Duhig has some nice things to say about my book The Poet Resigns.  He says I write "clearly and without jargon about modern poetry with a firm grasp of its historical roots."  He also notes that I "caused something of a furore" with my article on Cambridge poetry, despite being quite sympathetic to it, and offers the kind of praise I like best when he says " I don’t agree with everything on this book, but I do recommmend it without qualification." (Well, okay, that's the kind of praise I like second best — what I really like is Michael Robbins' comment that I am "The slobby poor white guy's Janet Malcolm").