This is somewhat old news, but last year, The Flow Chart Foundation — the organization devoted to exploring “poetry and the interrelationships of various art forms as guided by the legacy of American poet John Ashbery” — hosted a 38-day Twitter “slow reading” of Ashbery’s book-length poem Flow Chart, in which they invited participants and onlookers to take part in (or just watch and listen) a group discussion of the experience, which was led by poet and editor Emily Skillings.

To mark the conclusion of the “slow reading” project, the Flow Chart Foundation hosted an online event (which you can see in full above) on February 15, 2022, which brought together Skillings, poet and translator Marcella Durand, and myself to discuss the poem and our experience of reading it and to share questions, revelations, and conundrums, with input from those attending. Moderated by Flow Chart’s Executive Director, Jeffrey Lependorf.

I’m pleased to announce that my third book, The Cambridge Introduction to American Poetry Since 1945, was recently published by Cambridge University Press. The book is part of Cambridge’s “Introduction to Literature Series,” and is designed to be a wide-ranging and accessible introduction to the poetry of this period. It can be purchased through Amazon or Cambridge University Press.

Here is a description of the book:

Contemporary American poetry can often seem intimidating and daunting in its variety and complexity. This engaging and accessible book provides the first comprehensive introduction to the rich body of American poetry that has flourished since 1945 and offers a useful map to its current landscape. By exploring the major poets, movements, and landmark poems at the heart of this era, this book presents a compelling new version of the history of American poetry that takes into account its variety and breadth, its recent evolution in the new millennium, its ever-increasing diversity, and its ongoing engagement with politics and culture. Combining illuminating close readings of a wide range of representative poems with detailed discussion of historical, political, and aesthetic contexts, this book examines how poets have tirelessly invented new forms and styles to respond to the complex realities of American life and culture.

The Cambridge Introduction to American Poetry Since 1945

• Provides comprehensive coverage of a broad range of movements, trends, and individual poets, with special attention to the increasingly diverse nature of American poetry; explores a variety of traditions, aesthetic predispositions, poetic communities, and subject positions
• Combines a thorough account of literary history and overview of historical and political contexts with extensive discussion of individual poet’s careers and detailed close readings of representative poems
• Introduces readers to quite challenging, experimental, and difficult poetry in a way that is lively, engaging, and accessible

Here is the Table of Contents for the book:

Introduction. American poetry since 1945

Part I. American Poetry from 1945 to 1970:
1. The raw and the cooked: the new criticism versus the new American poetry
2. The Black Mountain poets
3. The beats and the San Francisco renaissance
4. The New York school of poetry
5. The middle generation, Elizabeth Bishop, and confessional poetry
6. Deep image poetry
7. African American poetry from 1945 to 1970

Part II. American Poetry from 1970 to 2000:
8. A new ‘mainstream’ period style in poetry of the 1970s and 1980s
9. Language poetry
10. Feminism and women’s poetry from 1970 to 2000
11. Diversity, identity, and poetry from 1970 to 2000

Part III. Into the New Millennium: American Poetry from 2000 to the Present:
12. New directions in American poetry from 2000 to the present
Conclusion

I hope you’ll check it out at Amazon or Cambridge University Press!