Poetry News

A Major Marjorie Perloff Offering at Jacket2

Originally Published: November 09, 2012

In case you haven't found your way over to the massive number of fabulous essays celebrating the work of Marjorie Perloff, hesitate no longer and make your way over to Jacket2. From Al Filreis and J. Gordon Faylor's introduction:

This feature celebrates the life and work of Marjorie Perloff at almost exactly the moment she receives the honor of induction into the American Philosophical Society, headquartered in Philadelphia, which happens to be — some blocks west of that venerable institution — home base for Jacket2. APS election is something like what in L.A., Perloff's own home, is called “a lifetime achievement award.” So it seemed time for us to bring together not just friends but also critical admirers at various distances to write brief retrospective reviews of her work over the years.

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The contributions that comprise this feature aim to commend and investigate the oppositional, pedagogical spirit that distinguishes Perloff’s criticism. Brian Reed starts early, with a piece on some of Perloff’s publications from the ’70s on Robert Lowell and Frank O’Hara; Al Filreis looks even earlier, at the young refugee from fascism and at effects of that dislocation; Jan Baetens considers her reputation among the French; Richard Sieburth recalls his first meeting Perloff at conferences on Ezra Pound and offers a reading of Perloff in the ’80s; Dee Morris focuses on her recent occupation with new media and its relation to digital and conceptual poetics. And so on. A range of poets and critics offer commentary on the many aspects of Perloff’s critical projects across the decades, each focusing, for the most part, on a single work.

Make the jump for the feature.