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Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Audio Archive

Bernadette Mayer workshop July 17, 1989

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Bernadette Mayer workshop July 17, 1989

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Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Audio Archive

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Title	Bernadette Mayer workshop July 17, 1989
Performer(s)	Mayer, Bernadette.
Subject 1	Poetry, Modern -- 20th century.
Subject 2	Experimental poetry.
Abstract	This lecture is presently referenced as part of a series with 89P075, however, it is really a separate lecture given by Bernadette Mayer on 7/17/1989 that talks about her intentions and structure relating to every book she has published to this date. She reads selections from "Utopia" and "Sonnets." The overall purpose is for her to explain structure and processes she used for putting together her creative books. She does mention her two discursive works "Handbook of Poetic Forms" and "Art of Science Writing." Creative books in chronological order discussed include: "Story" "Ceremony Latin 1964" "Moving" "Memory" "Studying Hunger" "Poetry" "Euruditio ex memoria" "The Golden Book of Words" "Midwinter Day" "Utopia" and "Sonnets."
Content	Bernadette Mayer begins by telling audience she will be describing her books to-date in terms of form with short selections being read from some. 0:56 "Story" first book by her - self published and is about falling down - it is a compilation of other sources like Italian folktales and some myths about Indians - she continues to provide background on her language for the book - she researched ways to say story and reads a list 9:54 begins describing the structure of "Ceremony Latin 1964" and how is was a duplication of a journal from when she was seventeen 11:21 her next book was published by Anne Waldman and was called "Moving" and the structure was based on children's books and knowledge - she then tells an anecdote about the typesetter/printer of the book 15:27 "Memory" her next book was a collaboration that begins with a poem created from ten books and ten words from those books all selected at random - the political sections of the book were written by others - there was also a series of photographs that were included in the original installation of the project that were accompanied by written journals - written in July 1971 - all the journals were then turned into reel-to-reel tapes and it was an eight hour long installation to hear/view the entire project - then mention of anecdote about how the publisher went about his offer for publication - final structure of book was shorter with the slides and text and additional text written around the sides of the slides 22:48 "Studying Hunger" next book that took information from journals and then made them into lectures - combination of prose and poetry - mentions Basho, Dante and William Carlos Williams as other writers who use the prose/poetry intermingling form 26:44 "Poetry" next book chronologically, Mayer feels it is the most boring of her books - structure: set up on two parts, Section One all her old poems and Section Two the poems she wrote in the two weeks prior to finishing the book 27:27 "Euriditio ex memoria" Book about learning and how to deal with transitions. Mayer then refers back to "Moving" and how it was about dealing with commas and how this book is about dealing with transition and what to or not to transition from 29:31 "The Golden Book of Words" structure focuses on her involvement with titles and works and the book poems is kept in chronological order 30:28 "Midwinter Day" one long poem with prose parts about December 22, 1978 written in almost one day. Set up in six sections. Mayer comments on the process she used to keep the day fresh and the ways she collected information 38:16 "Utopia" red and black book that includes pieces by other writers and who's intent was tongue in cheek textbook with an index 39:56 Mayer reads from "Utopia's" beginning 43:41 Mayer reads from "Utopia's" index with interspersed commentary 46:30 Mayer talks about how Utopia itself is a form 46:52- tape cuts off in sentence 47:01 tape cuts back to Mayer talking about her last books "Sonnets" and that the structure is around seventy sonnets with a lot of them coming from incident reports 50:28 talks about one of her two discursive books "Handbook for Poetic Forms" that was written by nineteen people. She talks about how at the end there were a total of around ten forms that no one wanted to write about and how she and the editor took up the slack. 51:43 second discursive book "Art of Science Writing" that she collaborated on with a fiction writer and playwrighter that was taught to science students 53:22 Mayer opens it up for questions with first question asking her to enumerate the ten poetic forms no one wanted to write about 53:55 Mayer recalls the least liked ten as being: pastoral, quatrain, sestet, allegory, canzoni, teriterima, ottavarima, and epithalamium 55:53 next question about "Sonnets" and how there is one that instructs the reader to turn to various pages based upon their desire to love or die - Mayer says initially the pages were made up, but in the book she did use intent. 57:04 question on whether her structure is explained in her books - Mayer responds that no it is not and it would be boring if it was 58:56 request for Mayer to talk about "Moving" and how it became formalized into a book - Mayer responds that the overall information was already in order and completed, she just added a poem at the beginning and end 60:27 question about "Story" being her first published book - how did she do it and does she recommend it? Mayer responds that at the time she was working with Vito Acconci on the magazine Zero to Nine and that they decided to publish some small books and they made 400 copies and then she goes into her distribution methods at the time 64:06 Mayer reads from "Sonnets" 67:06 question on new forms - Mayer comments on how forms add structure and how no form is also structure and that is it no necessary to write new forms, but she enjoys structure as intricate architecture 73:16 final student comment (hard to hear) 75:36 Mayer just started writing a new book "Journal of Small Cures" about the relationships people have with one another and daily life and the mixing in of sublime notions 77:33 thank you and clapping 77:43 tape ends
Type of Event	workshop
Engineer's Notes	good good audio except for last student comment at very end of tape.
Date Recorded	1989-07-17
File Format	mp3
Performance Length	1:17:38
Rights Information	Copyright release given to Naropa University for the purposes of preservation, maketing and educational use. All other rights reserved to individual performers.
Department	Writing
Original Format	audio cassette
Format Description	monounknown mono
Publisher	Allen Ginsberg Library and Naropa University Archives
Type	Sound
Language	eng
File Name	89P076.mp3

Bernadette Mayer workshop July 17, 1989

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