What Is Poetry: Conversations With the American Avant-Garde

by Daniel Kane

Over a four-year period, Daniel Kane interviewed many of America’s most interesting and daring contemporary poets about their work. What Is Poetry features twelve of the liveliest of these dialogues, accompanied by an in-depth introduction to the American "avant-garde tradition," a series of personable biographies, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The results are nothing short of a the interviews offer poets, readers, and writing teachers a backstage pass to experimental poetry, and Kane’s introductory essay provides a unique approach to an art that is at once playful and provocative. Rae Armantrout • John Ashbery • Robert Creeley • Fanny Howe • Lisa Jarnot • Kenneth Koch • Ann Lauterbach • Bernadette Mayer • Harryette Mullen • Michael Palmer • Lewis Warsh • Marjorie Welish

Genres: Poetry

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Fluffy Singler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a continuing education teacher who teaches, among other things, creative writing. I bought this book just for myself, but I have also gotten a ton of really good ideas for writing prompts for my students from this book. I particularly loved the sections on Bernadette Meyer and Harryette Mullin. Daniel Kane's interviews are very good for the most part. He has some structure of course, to them, but he also lets the writers go off in the directions that they need to in order to talk about their work and the aesthetic perspective they are coming from.