How to Proceed in the Arts

by Gary Sullivan

Poetry. Edith Perloff, who selected this collection for the 2001 National Poetry Series awards, writes of Sullivan's "HOW TO PROCEED IN THE ARTS is an amazing tour de force...by turns deeply troubling and breathlessly suspenseful, Sullivan catalogues the splendors and miseries of the young poet-hustler. With a wit whose ancestry includes Petronius, Sei Shonagon and Swift as well as Drucker and Bernstein, his 'takes' on everything from poetic process to poetry's 'place' in a culture saturated with David Bowies and Chers are compact, gritty, severe, even sometimes harsh, but always remarkably fresh and exciting. The result...is terrifying and true, and Sullivan emerges as our most sharply edged 'sociologist of the imagination.'"

Genres: Poetry

102 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Gary Sullivan is a poet and cartoonist living in Brooklyn, NY.

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, this will be appreciated much more by those INSIDE the writing game than outside it. But it's dead on, hilarious, urbane, low, cynical, optmistic, smart ass, sincere, sassy, annoyed, lots more adjectives and full of heart...someone has to be Alexander Pope today...Gary seems to have the job...but we'll keep your resume on file.

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Anarchist Cookbook of contemporary U.S. poetry, a sharp but loving goad to the dreary whimper and occasionally sanctimonious bang of the post-LANG scene. When the dust settles on the 21st-century, my money’s on Sullivan’s “Introduction” to share Norton space with “Personism.”

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all over the place; restlessness may be its strongest suit. The poems vacillate between a love of the craft and a dissatisfaction with the predominant forms it takes. Humorous, inventive, and (egad!) sincere.

[Nothing · Rating 5 out of 5]

the manual.