In 1960 Donald Allen published his ground-breaking anthology, The New American Poetry, which gathered some of the most important innovative poets writing since World War II, and helped Americans perceive a tradition that was different from the poetry of the 1940s and 1950s put forth by the American Academy in general, and by the New Critics in particular. The effect of this anthology has been staggering, and has helped to shape poetry since its publication. And since 1970 many readers have waited for another such anthology for the poets writing after Allen’s contribution. Many anthologies have appeared, but either they have focused on particular groups of writers or have been too unfocused aesthetically to have the impact of The New American Poetry.
Working over the past ten years, Douglas Messerli has attempted to bring together some of these same issues and concerns, reiterating them into the context of United States and Canadian poetry since Donald Allen’s collection. Like Allen, Messerli has organized his selection into somewhat arbitrary and non-rigid categories; but unlike Allen he has refused to “name” these in the concern (in the context of today’s more eclectic and socially-based gatherings) that they will be misunderstood as actual “groups” or poets driven only by particular ideas or theories.
Messerli is the editor of “Language” Poetries, published by New Directions; and Contemporary American Fiction, published by his own Sun & Moon Press. He is also the author of four books of poetry, a film for fiction in poetry, and a play.
POETS INCLUDED:
Bruce Andrews
David Antin
Rae Armantrout
John Ashbery
Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones
Steve Benson
Charles Bernstein
Ted Berrigan
Robin Blaser
David Bromige
Nicole Brossard
Michael Brownstein
John Cage
Joseph Ceravolo
Abigail Child
Clark Coolidge
Robert Creeley
Tina Darragh
Michael Davidson
Alan Davies
Jean Day
Christopher Dewdney
Ray DiPalma
Robert Duncan
Larry Eigner
Kenward Elmslie
Allen Ginsberg
John Godfrey
Ted Greenwald
Robert Grenier
Barbara Guest
Carla Harryman
Lyn Hejinian
Fanny Howe
Susan Howe
Peter Inman
Kenneth Irby
Ronald Johnson
Robert Kelly
Steve McCaffery
Nathaniel Mackey
Jackson Mac Low
Clarence Major
Bernadette Mayer
Douglas Messerli
bpNichol
Lorine Niedecker
Charles North
Alice Notley
Frank O’Hara
Charles Olson
George Oppen
Ron Padgett
Michael Palmer
Bob Perelman
Dennis Phillips
Nick Piombino
Carl Rakosi
Joan Retallack
Charles Reznikoff
Kit Robinson
Jerome Rothenberg
Leslie Scalapino
James Schuyler
James Sherry
Aaron Shurin
Ron Silliman
Gilbert Sorrentino
Jack Spicer
John Taggart
Fiona Templeton
Lorenzo Thomas
Rosmarie Waldrop
Diane Ward
Lewis Warsh
Barrett Watten
Hannah Weiner
Marjorie Welish
Mac Wellman
John Wieners
Louis Zukofsky