Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Leslie Scalapino (1944-2010)

Obituary
Ron Silliman's extensive list of links, which includes some of her essays and poetry, audio readings, and reviews and discussions of her work.

One of the first books I began reading this summer after grades were due was Scalapino's selected poems It's go in horizontal (reviewed here in Jacket), and I am looking forward to reading her most recent book, Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows (reviewed here at Tarpaulin Sky).

Reading Scalapino is having your mind patiently fractured, your grammar interrupted by another grammar, and by mind and grammar I mean also perception of the body, of the social and political as outside crossing inside, being thought one word at a time, word and pause, pause and word. You must pay attention.