Profile
Jennifer Firestone is the author of five books of poetry, most recently听Story听by Ugly Duckling Presse, five chapbooks, and has co-edited two anthologies, including one forthcoming from MIT Press, Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry, which is based on her course, Feminist Avant-garde Poetics.
Firestone writes serial poems that interrogate ideas of indeterminacy, subjectivity, and the construction, use and performance of language. Her interest in the lyric and sonics informs her aesthetic and philosophy of the fragment, rupture, slipperiness, and ambiguity as being the closest indicatives of 鈥渞eal鈥 life. Firestone writes not to resolve but to deepen the questions at hand and sometimes even the confusion.
In her courses, Firestone uses experiments, play and collaboration to expand definitions of 鈥減oetry.鈥 For her, process is as central as the finished poem and community as valued as much as the individual poet.
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Degrees Held
MFA, Poetry, San Francisco State University
Professional Affiliation
Belladonna* Collaborative
Recent Publications
Books:
Story听(Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019)
Ten听(BlazeVOX [books], 2019)
Gates & Fields (Belladonna*, 2017)
Flashes (Shearsman Books, 2013)
Holiday (Shearsman Books, 2008)
Chapbooks:
Swimming Pool (DoubleCross, 2016)
LITtle by LITtle (Dusie Kollektiv, 2014) in collaboration with Laura Y. Liu
Fanimaly (Dusie Kollectiv, 2013)
Waves (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2007)
From Flashes (Sona Books, 2006)
snapshot (Sona Books, 2004)
Anthologies:
Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry (MIT Press, 2024), co-edited with Marcella Durand
Letters To Poets: Conversations 麻豆传媒色情片 Poetics, Politics, And Community听(Saturnalia Books, 2008)
Selected Literary Journals & Anthologies
Poems:
Brooklyn Rail, Academy of American Poets, Hyperallergic,听Prelude, 麻豆传媒色情片 Place, Chicago Quarterly, Entropy,听Drunken Boat, e-ratio, 580 Split, Boog City,听Fourteen Hills, How2, Kindergarde: Avant-Garde Poems, Plays, Stories, & Songs for Children,听Poetry Salzburg Review, Ping Pong, Typo and听Xcp:听Cross Cultural Poetics.
Essays :
The Volta, Poetry Northwest, Jacket Magazine, Tarpaulin Sky,听Building is a Process/Light is an Element: Essays and Excursions for Myung Mi Kim,听Spellbound:听The Art of Teaching Poetry:听鈥淯ndressing Advertisements--Poetry as Feminist Critique through Harryette Mullen鈥檚 Trimmings.鈥 .听
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Performances and Appearances
Selected Readings:
The Poetry Project, New York.|
Segue, New York. Double Take. Apexart, New York.
Mcnally Jackson, New York.
Dixon Place, New York.
L茅vy Gorvy Gallery, New York.
Mental Marginalia, Brooklyn.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Avant-garde of One, Brooklyn.
Black Radish Books and the Dusie Kollektiv, Seattle.
Berl鈥檚 Poetry Shop, Brooklyn.
Bookcourt, Brooklyn. |
Spare Room, Portland.
Canessa Gallery, San Francisco.
Studio One, Oakland.
A New Cadence Poetry Series, Santa Cruz.
The Center for Book Arts, New York.
Outpost 186, Cambridge.
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Research Interests
20th and 21st century Experimental Poetry and Poetics with emphasis on The Feminist Avant-garde, Documentary and Investigative Poetics, Cross-Genre Texts, Procedural & Constraint-based Poetics, Projects of Community and Collaboration and small press publishing.
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Awards And Honors
Gates & Fields named one of the best poetry books of 2017 by both The Brooklyn Rail & Lithub.
2014 Marsh Hawk Press鈥 Robert Creeley Memorial Prize.
Visiting Writer: Lower Manhattan Cultural Center Writing Residency (2013-2015).
Writing Residences: Ragdale Foundation, Constance Saltonstall Foundation For The Art, Vermont Studio Center Residency.
Recipient of Eugene Lang's Civic Arts residency on the feminist avant-garde.
Recipient of 麻豆传媒色情片's Mutual Mentoring grant.