Santa Cruz, CA
Born 1947, Miami, Florida
Writer, Teacher, Editor
I write primarily in an open, serial mode, whether in verse or in prose. Over the course of years my writing has come to be concentrated in three ongoing works: the serial poem Song of the Andoumboulou, the serial poem “Mu” and a series of epistolary novels collectively titled From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate. Seriality and ongoingness offer a break from assumptions of a bounded, self-sufficient work, accenting the fact that pieces are in fact pieces and thus dependent on one another, porous to one another, insisting on provisionality and evolving relations among parts. Pieces within a series lean on each other and the series themselves lean on each other, so that Song of the Andoumboulou and “Mu” relate to and resonate with one another while doing so with From a Broken Bottle as well. I approach my writing as “of a piece” in more senses than one, admittedly fractional but wanting to imply—all the more wanting to imply—the proverbial whole the parts fail to add up to.
1975 Ph.D., English and American Literature, Stanford University
1969 B.A., English, Princeton University
1979- Professor, Department of Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz
1976-1979 Professor, Department of English, University of Southern California
1974-1976 Professor, Department of English, University of Wisconsin, Madison
POETRY
2006 Splay Anthem. New York, NY: New Directions
1998 Whatsaid Serif. San Francisco, CA: City Lights
1993 School of Udhra. San Francisco, CA: City Lights
1985 Eroding Witness. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press
FICTION
2001 Atet A.D. . San Francisco, CA: City Lights
1993 Djbot Baghostus’ Run. Los Angeles, CA: Sun & Moon Press
1986 Bedouin Hornbook. Lexington, KY: Callaloo Fiction Series
CRITICISM
2005 Paracritical Hinge: Essays, Talks, Notes, Interviews. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press
1993 Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
2006 Recipient of the National Book Award for Splay Anthem
2001 Election to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets
1993 Recipient of the Whiting Writer’s Award
1984 Eroding Witness selected for publication in the National Poetry Series, 1984
