&Now 2015: Blast Radius

Although Apostrophe Books has defined itself as a publisher of “innovative poetry,” our authors have transgressed even this label by making all generic categories of writing somewhat suspect. From Tony Trigilio’s conceptual deformation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise to Joe Milazzo’s bizarre and haunting palimpsests to Gina Abelkop’s sinister and surreal mock romances, Apostrophe writers don’t simply perform “interventions on movements, canons, timelines, and other gatekeepers of the status quo,” they eschew whatever’s on the other side of those gates all together. 

The mantra at Apostrophe is not simply innovation, but pataphysical innovation. This means the philosophy of the absurd, the ecology of hypothetical experience, the science of imaginary solutions. Our authors challenge categories and genre distinctions most often associated with literature and poetry via discourse that intersects philosophy, cultural studies, theory, and, especially, pataphysics. By investigating language and consciousness through conceptual operations, parody & pastiche, Oulipo-like methods, surrealist conceits, and cross-genre experiments, these writers expand potential definitions of literature. The intersection of poetic discourse with pataphysics involves an “anti-metaphysical” trajectory that delights in the uncertain and indeterminate nature of human experience; a kind of postmodern negative capability. Our writers subvert the idea of a “well-crafted” poem by disclosing its own operations and undermining presumptions about what constitutes a poem. 

After a short introduction from the editors (Mark Tursi and Richard Greenfield), five APOSTROPHE authors (Tony Trigilio, Joe Milazzo, Catherine Meng, Gina Abelkop and Johannes Göransson) will read their work. A panel discussion with the writers and editors concerning the characteristics of our aesthetic followed by questions from the audience.