Thanks, Geraldine – and particularly thanks for the connection to the discussion in
Jacket. I stand corrected.
I think it is also the case, in London anyway, that some women who might have become involved in this area of poetry went into feminist activities instead.
I am thinking of one friend, who wrote poetry in the early 70s and attended some readings, but then involved herself in a Marxist feminist group. Another friend, who was reading Stein, HD, Duncan Harwood in the 60s, wrote poetry – which she never showed to
anybody.
Robert
From: British & Irish poets [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Geraldine Monk
Sent: 15 January 2015 17:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Current Anthology
Exactly Mark and if I have to say it one more time that women were quite happy to go to pubs to have a drink, get poleaxed, smoke till they croaked and read and listen to poetry readings
I think I might have a flipping coronary. The only person I know who didn't like this was Andrea Brady but she wasn't brought up in an English pub culture so she's not really typical. Anyway below is the link to everything you wanted to know but where to
afraid to read back in the day of 2007. Moderated by Wags and featuring Brady and Me and others.
At the mo I have a big project on so I can't really join in - although I'm curious to know who else Sean thinks Maggie should have included in Out of Everywhere. I think she did a brilliant job
especially as it was in pre-electronic mail/computer days. Just getting everyone's address and hoping they still lived there was a triumph in those days! I don't think there were any major oversights - no forgetting that no everyone invited actually contributes.
Oh and Peter (Riley) - yes I like 'hovering' - I'll take that anyday.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: A Current Anthology
I ran several long-running series in bars in NY. I had lots of female readers and audience. Many of the women poets, even those who
rarely drank, had no problem hanging out in the bars where poets tended to gather, drinking coffee or eating a sandwich and reading a book. There were some non-drinking women poets one could count on finding in a given bar at a given time. It was just how
one lived in bohemia.
The British academicization of poetry is just beginning. It's been disastrous in the US. You heard it here. It barely exists outside the English-speaking world.
Best,
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: "Hampson, R"
Sent: Jan 15, 2015 11:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Current Anthology
Thanks, Tim –
Yes, I agree that the UK scene has changed since 1996. It will be interesting to check the affiliations (if any) in the new anthology. I am sure you are right
– that younger Brit avant poets are more likely to have had an involvement with academia – though that might be in the form of an MA rather than PhD and/or subsequent academic post. This is partly because appropriate MAs didn’t exist earlier. Our MA in Poetic
Practice – through which Sophie Robinson, Frances Kruk, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Prue Chamberlain and others have passed – didn’t start till around 2002. It is also interesting that the movement of ag poetry (or whatever we want to call it) into the academy
(in London at least) has been enabling for women poets (in a way that bar-based poetries weren’t).
I wonder if you are right that women ag poets are more likely to be involved in academia than men.
Robert
Robert - Yes. And looking down through the list there are a number of the Americans too who to my knowledge were not connected with academia. I won't mention names in case I'm wrong even though I'm pretty certain
about 3 or 4 of them.
Of course the Americans were more likely to be involved with academia than the Brits back in '96. Things have changed since then though - these days a younger Brit avant inclined poet is more likely to be connected
to academia than not - or if not to academia then to the art world etc. Am I wrong? I would actually like to be wrong on this. It would be interesting to find out. For example is a woman involved in avant poetry more likely to be in academia than a man? Etc.
Of course what would make such an enquiry difficult is in deciding what qualifies as being an avant poet.
On 15 Jan 2015, at 11:27, Hampson, R wrote:
I have just had a look at ‘Out of Everywhere’, which I have always thought was a very important and useful anthology for introducing this area of work to those
without prior knowledge of it. You say that those included are ‘mostly based in academia’, but, if you look at the UK contingent, the majority – Paula Claire, Grace Lake, Geraldine Monk, Wendy Mulford, Maggie O’Sullivan, Carlyle Reedy – don’t have any connection
with academia.
