Rain Taxi Benefit Auction

The annual Rain Taxi auction is back, featuring:

Books by Diane Ackerman, Paul Auster, Nicholson Baker, Charles Baxter, Gabrielle Bell, Richard Brautigan, Robert Olen Butler, Thomas Frank, Neil Gaiman, Jaime Hernandez, Steve Martin, Harry Mathews, Lorrie Moore, John Porcellino, Edward Sanders, Gertrude Stein, Dara Wier, David Wroblewski, Adam Zagajewski.

Broadsides, chapbooks and special items by M.T. Anderson, Jan Brett, Stephen Dixon, Russell Edson, Brian Evenson, Robert Hass, Gerard Malanga, Paul Metcalf, Alice Notley, Wang Ping, Donald Revell, Buzz Spector & Marjorie Welish, Nathaniel Tarn, James Tate, Anne Waldman, Keith Waldrop, Rosmarie Waldrop

The auction takes place on eBay.

via Pierre Joris

Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry: Birkbeck Launch Event 2009 - Selected Papers

Robert Sheppard has pointed to a Scribd upload of papers from the recent Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry at Birkbeck. The online document features:

• Caroline Bergvall
• Andrea Brady
• Robert Hampson

lexico

lexico is a new project from Michael Zand:

Essentially, lexico is all about poetry in translation. We are not talking about ”straight” translations, i.e. when we take words in the original language and transposing them into the English. In most cases these sorts of translations are available elsewhere or, if not, I would recommend using “google translate”.

Instead, the aim is to produce what Walter Benjamin calls “aura of the original text”. New creative material will be introduced, often to make the writings more contemporary, more challenging or even more disruptive. I will as the translator try very hard to be as subjective as possible, introducing my own ideas and literary affectations at every available opportunity. The ultimate aim is, to quote Benjamin again, “to go beyond the life (leben) of the original and to give it a higher life (uberleben) which transcends the limitations of time, culture and place”.

There will a new poem posted ever week, along with a brief description of the poet concerned and the background to the piece in question.

via Marcus Slease

Hard Shoulder

Richard Barrett on his forthcoming Hard Shoulder:

sometime over the next few weeks i plan to make a booklet collecting the first 20 sections of the hard shoulder. the material is already available to read here on yawn but i plan to rewrite certain bits and completely rearrange the order of the sections. maybe i'll include some photos in there as well. if anyone wants a copy of the booklet all i need is a message with address details. my email address is barrett[dot]richard1[at]googlemail[dot]com get in touch now and i'll send the booklets out when theyre ready.