Adam Cornford
Encyclopedia
Adam Cornford is an American
poet
, librettist, and essayist.
and a lineal descendant of naturalist Charles Darwin
. Cornford moved to California in 1969 after shifting his academic focus from biology to literature and art.
He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied with (and was first published by) kayak editor George Hitchcock; and San Francisco State University
, where his mentor was the Greek surrealist Nanos Valaoritis
. Among his books are three collections of poetry: Shooting Scripts (Black Stone Press, 1978); Animations (City Lights Books, 1988);
and Decision Forest (Pantograph Press, 1997). He considers himself a neo-surrealist, and shares the surrealist view that the true goal of poetry is what the original group around André Breton
called "the total liberation
of the mind and of all that resembles it" ("Declaration of January 27, 1925"). He also has translated poetry by the surrealist Benjamin Perét
and also the seminal account by Louis Aragon
of the early days of the surrealist group, "A Wave of Dreams" (1925).
Cornford has published articles about labor movements and political and cultural analyses for Bad Subjects, The Progressive, The Dispatcher (the newspaper of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and the underground information workers’ magazine Processed World
, of which he was a co-editor during 1981-1992 as well as a resident graphic artist and cartoonist.
His two longest poems, "Lightning Rod to Storm" in Animations (1988) and "The Snarling Gift" in Terminal Velocities (1993) are both concerned with popular movements for social and environmental justice. The same is true of the two experimental radio theater works he co-authored with Daniel Steven Crafts
, Fundamentals (an early critical take on fundamentalist "televangelism") and Ad Nauseam (a poetic examination of the deforming effects of commercial saturation on the imagination). There is a strong continuity between his poetic work and his activism, including his work as author and performer for the satirical antiwar street theater troupe the John Wayne Peace Institute (1980–81) and his participation in Processed World. His work is discussed in this context in the essay by Andrew Joron
, "Neo-Surrealism: Or, The Sun at Night".
In collaboration with Emmy-award-winning composer Daniel Steven Crafts
, he has written libretti and other musical texts, most recently the "Spider Woman" section for the orchestral song-cycle From a Distant Mesa.
From 1987 to 2008, Cornford was a faculty member at New College of California in San Francisco, where he taught the history and composition of poetry, drama, and interdisciplinary performance. Among his courses was a graduate writing seminar in Science and Poetry, reflecting his lifelong interest in the sciences, especially evolutionary biology, physics, and cosmology.
Poetry and translations have appeared in:
(Print) Antaeus
, Antenym, Bay Guardian, Beatitude, Caliban, City Lights Review, Compact Bone, Coracle, Gallery Works, Gas, Juxta, Mantis, Malthus, Melodeon, Mike & Dale’s Younger Poets, The New College Review, Prosodia, Root & Branch, syllogism, Talisman, Terra, Velocities.
(Web): The Alterran Poetry Assemblage #2, The Alterran Poetry Assemblage #3, Angel Poetry, Counterexample Poetics, black fire white fire, Deep Oakland, Duration Press Archive, Facture 1, Facture 2 , Five Fingers Review, Issue 16, kayak, Montana Gothic, Orpheus Grid, ‘’The Pedestal Magazine’’, Processed World, ur-vox, MSNBC.com.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, librettist, and essayist.
Biography
Adam Francis Cornford is the son of Christopher CornfordChristopher Cornford
Christopher Francis Cornford was a British artist and writer. He was the son of Francis Cornford, and his wife Frances Cornford . Through his mother he was a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin. His elder brother was the poet, communist, and Spanish Civil War victim John Cornford.-...
and a lineal descendant of naturalist Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. Cornford moved to California in 1969 after shifting his academic focus from biology to literature and art.
He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied with (and was first published by) kayak editor George Hitchcock; and San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, where his mentor was the Greek surrealist Nanos Valaoritis
Nanos Valaoritis
Nanos Valaoritis is one of the most distinguished writers in Greece today. He has been widely published as a poet, novelist and playwright since 1939, and his correspondence with George Seferis has been a bestseller...
. Among his books are three collections of poetry: Shooting Scripts (Black Stone Press, 1978); Animations (City Lights Books, 1988);
and Decision Forest (Pantograph Press, 1997). He considers himself a neo-surrealist, and shares the surrealist view that the true goal of poetry is what the original group around André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
called "the total liberation
of the mind and of all that resembles it" ("Declaration of January 27, 1925"). He also has translated poetry by the surrealist Benjamin Perét
Benjamin Péret
Benjamin Péret was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism.-Biography:...
and also the seminal account by Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
of the early days of the surrealist group, "A Wave of Dreams" (1925).
Cornford has published articles about labor movements and political and cultural analyses for Bad Subjects, The Progressive, The Dispatcher (the newspaper of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and the underground information workers’ magazine Processed World
Processed World (magazine)
Processed World is an anarchist magazine about the absurdity of modern office work that was founded in San Francisco, California in 1981.-Publication history of Processed World:...
, of which he was a co-editor during 1981-1992 as well as a resident graphic artist and cartoonist.
His two longest poems, "Lightning Rod to Storm" in Animations (1988) and "The Snarling Gift" in Terminal Velocities (1993) are both concerned with popular movements for social and environmental justice. The same is true of the two experimental radio theater works he co-authored with Daniel Steven Crafts
Daniel Steven Crafts
Daniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
, Fundamentals (an early critical take on fundamentalist "televangelism") and Ad Nauseam (a poetic examination of the deforming effects of commercial saturation on the imagination). There is a strong continuity between his poetic work and his activism, including his work as author and performer for the satirical antiwar street theater troupe the John Wayne Peace Institute (1980–81) and his participation in Processed World. His work is discussed in this context in the essay by Andrew Joron
Andrew Joron
Andrew Joron is an American writer of experimental poetry. He began by writing science fiction poetry. Joron's later poetry, combining scientific and philosophical ideas with the sonic properties of language, has been compared to the work of the Russian Futurist Velimir Khlebnikov...
, "Neo-Surrealism: Or, The Sun at Night".
In collaboration with Emmy-award-winning composer Daniel Steven Crafts
Daniel Steven Crafts
Daniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
, he has written libretti and other musical texts, most recently the "Spider Woman" section for the orchestral song-cycle From a Distant Mesa.
From 1987 to 2008, Cornford was a faculty member at New College of California in San Francisco, where he taught the history and composition of poetry, drama, and interdisciplinary performance. Among his courses was a graduate writing seminar in Science and Poetry, reflecting his lifelong interest in the sciences, especially evolutionary biology, physics, and cosmology.
Collections and longer works
- Decision Forest (poetry collection). Pantograph Press, Berkeley, CA, 1997, ISBN 1-880766-15-9.
- ’Round Midnight (long poem chapbook), Altazor Editions, San Francisco, CA, 1989.
- Animations (poetry collection), City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA, 1988, ISBN 0-87286-208-9.
- Shooting Scripts (poetry collection), Black Stone Press, San Francisco, CA, 1978, ISBN 0-686-28251-5.
Journals
1969-present.Poetry and translations have appeared in:
(Print) Antaeus
Antaeus (magazine)
Antaeus was a literary quarterly founded by Daniel Halpern and Paul Bowles and edited by Daniel Halpern. It was originally published in Tangier, Morocco, but operations were later shifted to New York City. The first number appeared in the summer of 1970, the final issue in 1994...
, Antenym, Bay Guardian, Beatitude, Caliban, City Lights Review, Compact Bone, Coracle, Gallery Works, Gas, Juxta, Mantis, Malthus, Melodeon, Mike & Dale’s Younger Poets, The New College Review, Prosodia, Root & Branch, syllogism, Talisman, Terra, Velocities.
(Web): The Alterran Poetry Assemblage #2, The Alterran Poetry Assemblage #3, Angel Poetry, Counterexample Poetics, black fire white fire, Deep Oakland, Duration Press Archive, Facture 1, Facture 2 , Five Fingers Review, Issue 16, kayak, Montana Gothic, Orpheus Grid, ‘’The Pedestal Magazine’’, Processed World, ur-vox, MSNBC.com.
Anthologies
- The Alchemy of Stars: The Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, Science Fiction Poetry Association, US, 2005, ISBN 0-8095-1162-2.
- 2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology. Anamnesis Press, Ridgecrest, CA, 2001, ISBN 1-892842-23-8.
- The City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology (different poems in the two editions). City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA, 1995-1997.
- Terminal Velocities: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry. ("The Snarling Gift," a 41-page poem). Velocities Publications, Berkeley, CA, 1993, ISBN 1-880766-03-5.
- Burning With A Vision: Poetry of Science and the Fantastic. Owlswick Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1984, ISBN 0-913896-23-3.
Poetry teaching – children
- "Eating the Yema of the Sol" (six Spanish bilingual poetry lessons for children), ed. and intro., BUSD Publications, Berkeley, CA, 1981.
- "These Words Are My Words," with Robert Glück, eds. and intro., (anthology of children’s poems from Berkeley Grade 2-3 classes), Poetry Playhouse, Berkeley, CA, 1980.
Selected essays
- "Given: An Autobiography" in Linda R. Andres and Marilyn O’Connell Allen, eds., Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, vol. 28. Gale Research, Inc, Detroit, MI, 1997, ISBN 0-7876-1143-3.
- "The Pyramid and the Tree" in Cornford, Decision Forest, op. cit. (and in updated version on Cornford's official website).
- "Colorless All-Color: Notes on White Culture" in ‘’Bad Subjects #33, Race Issue, Berkeley, CA, 1997.
- "Cosmology: Intelligence and Infinity in Language" in Alterran Poetry Assemblage #3, Toronto, Canada, 1996.
Librettos and other musical texts
- "Spider Woman" in From a Distant Mesa, an orchestral song cycle on the Southwest’s history and culture, with composer Daniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
, 2007.
- Otter’s Tale (spoken narrative to accompany an orchestral work by composer Daniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
), 2001.
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin (libretto for children’s opera based on the poem by Robert BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, with composer Daniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
), 1992.
- Ad Nauseam (one-hour radio performance work for three actors using sound collage and poetry, with Daniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
, 1985.
- Fundamentals (ninety-minute experimental theater piece using sound collage, slide projection, and choreopoetry; adapted for radio 1985, with Daniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
, 1984.)
- A Soldier’s Tale (futuristic comic reworking of the libretto/narrative for the Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
piece, co-authored and performed with Melinda GebbieMelinda GebbieMelinda Gebbie is an American comics artist and writer, probably best known for Lost Girls, the three-volume graphic novel she produced in collaboration with writer Alan Moore, published by Top Shelf.-Biography:...
and Michael Peppe, together with the Berkeley Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kent NaganoKent Nagano__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...
), 1984.
- Theater of Operations (experimental theater, performed with the music group the Funktionaries), 1980-81.
Reviews
- Andrew Joron, "Neo-Surrealism: Or, The Sun at Night", in the critical anthology The World in Time and Space: Towards a History of Innovative American Poetry in Our Time,1970-2000, Edward Foster and Joseph Donahue, eds., Talisman House, Jersey City, NJ, 2002, ISBN 978-0-9744065-2-7.
Awards
- National Endowment of the Arts grant (with Daniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven CraftsDaniel Steven Crafts is an American composer.-Composition Style:Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th century classical music...
) for Fundamentals and Ad Nauseam, 1985.
- Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem, "Your Time and You: A Neoprole’s Dating Guide", Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1981.