This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Belladonna
Series, curated by Rachel Levitsky and Erica Kaufman in New
York City. To celebrate the occasion, the editors are
celebrating artists who have influenced the members of this
community of conversation, and publishing 8 perfect bound
books-one a month. The “Elders Series” is guest-curated. Each
book, printed as a one-time limited edition (276 – 326 copies
ONLY), is beautifully designed and slightly square-shaped
(6×7). Each contains the work of the two or three people who
read the night the book is released. The books are considered
conversations between writers who are in dialogue. This month
Bob Glück is publishing two chapters from an upcoming novel in
progress, About Ed, and Sarah Schulman is publishing a new
play called MERCY. Last month, Leslie Scalapino published a
new NOH play, A Pear: Actions are Erased, alongside E. Tracy
Grinnell’s newest work, Helen: A Fugue. Next month we’ll
publish new fiction by Chris Kraus and Tisa Bryant. Future
editions will be, #4: Lyn Hejinian, Etel Adnan, and Jennifer
Scappettone; #5: Marjorie Perloff, Susan Bee and Emma Bee
Bernstein; #6: Gail Scott, M NorbeSe Philip and Kate Eichhorn;
#7: Jayne Cortez, Anne Waldman and Cara Benson; and #8: Tina
Darragh, Diane Ward and Jane Sprague. Each edition documents
an exchange between the writers and artists, an engagement on
experimental form, gossip, topography, a gathering of insights
on the writer/artist/thinker in the world.
!! subscribe to the series !!
Until January 1 it costs $90.00, a bargain-basement price! (It costs
Belladonna* about $28.00 to ship them to you, and this fee
doesn’t include that charge-you are free to include it,
however, or to make a donation to the “Belladonna Series” at
any time: 925 Bergen St. Suite 405, Brooklyn NY 11238). After
January 1, the series will be priced at $100.00. The editors
are only selling up to 150 subscriptions! And they are
dependent upon subscriptions to fund the series. Go to
http://belladonnaseries.org/books.html for more information on
ordering.
Of course, these little gems make great gifts for the holidays.
*
About Belladonna*:
Belladonna* began as a reading and salon series at
Bluestocking’s Women’s Bookstore on New York City’s Lower East
Side in August 1999. In June 2000, in collaboration with Boog
Literature, Belladonna* began to publish commemorative
‘chaplets’ of the readers’ work (the entire series is
available by subscription to individual collectors and
libraries). This year marks the tenth anniversary of our
mission to promote the work of women writers who are
adventurous, experimental, politically involved, multi-form,
multicultural, multi-gendered, impossible to define, delicious
to talk about, unpredictable, and dangerous with language.
Belladonna* has featured over 150 writers of wildly diverse
age and origin, writers who work in conversation and
collaboration within and between multiple forms, languages,
critical fields. As performance and as printed text, the work
collects, gathers over time and space, and forms a kind of
conversation about the feminist avant-garde, what it is and
how it comes to be. Our anniversary Elders Series is a
continuation of this conversation, which highlights the fact
of influence and continuity of the ideas, poetics, and
concerns we circle through.