Peter Gizzi
Encyclopedia
Peter Gizzi is an award-winning American poet
and renowned editor of the American poet Jack Spicer
. He attended Brown University
, New York University
and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Born in Pittsfield
, Massachusetts
, he delayed going to college and took a job in a factory winding resin tubes and in a residential treatment center working with emotionally disturbed adolescents. Working overnight at the treatment center, Gizzi read George Oppen's
Collected Poems, along with H.D.
, Wallace Stevens
, William Carlos Williams
, Federico García Lorca
, Baudelaire, Rimbaud "and almost anything published by Burning Deck
." Living in New York City
, in part to keep in touch with the punk scene, he walked by the St. Mark's book store one day and his eye was caught by a reprinted version of BLAST
, with its shocking pink and diagonal title. He picked up a copy and read the manifestos. "I was home in that synthesis — Punk and Poetry had merged and I knew at once I wanted to edit my own journal and so I did," he later wrote.
By the late 1980s, he was waiting tables, reading and editing o•blék: a journal of language arts
, which he founded in 1987 with Connell McGrath.
In 1991 he started editing the lectures of Jack Spicer
for publication and went to SUNY Buffalo with support from Robert Creeley
, Charles Bernstein
, and Susan Howe
, "and with the financial support (meager as it was) that working within an institution offered." In 1993, after eight years and 12 issues, he left o•blék
, which soon folded.
Gizzi has taught at Brown University
and The University of California, Santa Cruz
. He currently (as of 2006) teaches poetry workshops at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers
at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He also is on the contributing editorial board to the literary journal Conjunctions
. He is married to poet Elizabeth Willis
. He is the brother of poet Michael Gizzi
.
(selected by John Ashbery
). Gizzi has also held residencies at The MacDowell Colony
, The Foundation of French Literature at Royaumont, Un Bureau Sur L’Atlantique, and the Centre International de Poesie Marseille. He has received fellowships from the Howard Foundation, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Since January 2011, Gizzi has held the position of Poet-in-Residence in the English Faculty of the University of Cambridge
.
, 1998), Fin Amor (Tougher Disguises
, 2002), Some Values of Landscape and Weather (Wesleyan, 2003) and The Outernationale (Wesleyan, 2007). He is also the creator of the chapbooks, Hours of the Book (Zasterle, 1994) and Music for Films (Paradigm, 1992). His editing projects have included the celebrated ‘little magazine’ o-blek: a journal of language arts
(1987–93), and the international literary anthology the Exact Change Yearbook (1995). He edited The House That Jack Built - the Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer (Wesleyan, 1998) and My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, both important editions to Spicer's oeuvre which before had consisted primarily of The Collected Books of Jack Spicer
, edited by Robin Blaser
, (Black Sparrow Press, 1975). My Vocabulary Did This To Me won the 1999 American Book Award
from the Before Columbus Foundation.
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...
and renowned editor of the American poet Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer won the American Book Award for poetry.-Life and work:...
. He attended Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Life and career
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, he delayed going to college and took a job in a factory winding resin tubes and in a residential treatment center working with emotionally disturbed adolescents. Working overnight at the treatment center, Gizzi read George Oppen's
George Oppen
George Oppen was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism, and later moved to Mexico to avoid the attentions of the House Un-American Activities Committee...
Collected Poems, along with H.D.
H.D.
H.D. was an American poet, novelist and memoirist known for her association with the early 20th century avant-garde Imagist group of poets such as Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington...
, Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
, William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
, Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
, Baudelaire, Rimbaud "and almost anything published by Burning Deck
Burning Deck Press
Burning Deck is a small press specializing in the publication of experimental poetry and prose. Burning Deck was founded by the writers Keith Waldrop and Rosmarie Waldrop in 1961.-Overview:...
." Living in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in part to keep in touch with the punk scene, he walked by the St. Mark's book store one day and his eye was caught by a reprinted version of BLAST
BLAST (journal)
BLAST was the short-lived literary magazine of the Vorticist movement in Britain. Two editions were published: the first on 2 July 1914 and the second a year later on 15 July 1915...
, with its shocking pink and diagonal title. He picked up a copy and read the manifestos. "I was home in that synthesis — Punk and Poetry had merged and I knew at once I wanted to edit my own journal and so I did," he later wrote.
By the late 1980s, he was waiting tables, reading and editing o•blék: a journal of language arts
O-blek
o•blék: a journal of language arts was a small literary magazine founded by Peter Gizzi who co-edited it with Connell McGrath. The magazine published a number of poems often not in the mainstream but recognized for their excellence...
, which he founded in 1987 with Connell McGrath.
In 1991 he started editing the lectures of Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer won the American Book Award for poetry.-Life and work:...
for publication and went to SUNY Buffalo with support from Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
, Charles Bernstein
Charles Bernstein
Charles Bernstein is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language poets . In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American...
, and Susan Howe
Susan Howe
Susan Howe is a American poet, scholar, essayist and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among others poetry movements. Her work is often classified as Postmodern because it expands traditional notions of genre...
, "and with the financial support (meager as it was) that working within an institution offered." In 1993, after eight years and 12 issues, he left o•blék
O-blek
o•blék: a journal of language arts was a small literary magazine founded by Peter Gizzi who co-edited it with Connell McGrath. The magazine published a number of poems often not in the mainstream but recognized for their excellence...
, which soon folded.
Gizzi has taught at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
and The University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
. He currently (as of 2006) teaches poetry workshops at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers
MFA Program for Poets & Writers
The MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a graduate creative writing program.-History:The MFA Program for Poets & Writers was founded in the 1960s by poet Joseph Langland and is part of the English Department at the University of Massachusetts...
at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He also is on the contributing editorial board to the literary journal Conjunctions
Conjunctions
Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
. He is married to poet Elizabeth Willis
Elizabeth Willis
Elizabeth Willis is an American poet, literary critic and professor of literature and creative writing at Wesleyan University. Her most notable work includes four major books of poetry and a scholarly collection of essays on Lorine Niedecker which she edited...
. He is the brother of poet Michael Gizzi
Michael Gizzi
Michael Gizzi was an American poet.-Life:Michael Gizzi was born in Schenectady, New York in 1949 to Carolyn and Anthony Gizzi. He had two brothers, Peter and Thomas Gizzi...
.
Awards and recognition
In 1994 he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American PoetsAcademy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
(selected by John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
). Gizzi has also held residencies at The MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
, The Foundation of French Literature at Royaumont, Un Bureau Sur L’Atlantique, and the Centre International de Poesie Marseille. He has received fellowships from the Howard Foundation, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Since January 2011, Gizzi has held the position of Poet-in-Residence in the English Faculty of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
Work
His publications include Periplum (Avec, 1992), Artificial Heart (Burning Deck PressBurning Deck Press
Burning Deck is a small press specializing in the publication of experimental poetry and prose. Burning Deck was founded by the writers Keith Waldrop and Rosmarie Waldrop in 1961.-Overview:...
, 1998), Fin Amor (Tougher Disguises
Tougher Disguises
Tougher Disguises is a publisher of experimental poetry, based in San Diego, California. It was founded by poet James Meetze in 2002, publishing small letterpress editions by a pair of established poets, Peter Gizzi and Clark Coolidge....
, 2002), Some Values of Landscape and Weather (Wesleyan, 2003) and The Outernationale (Wesleyan, 2007). He is also the creator of the chapbooks, Hours of the Book (Zasterle, 1994) and Music for Films (Paradigm, 1992). His editing projects have included the celebrated ‘little magazine’ o-blek: a journal of language arts
O-blek
o•blék: a journal of language arts was a small literary magazine founded by Peter Gizzi who co-edited it with Connell McGrath. The magazine published a number of poems often not in the mainstream but recognized for their excellence...
(1987–93), and the international literary anthology the Exact Change Yearbook (1995). He edited The House That Jack Built - the Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer (Wesleyan, 1998) and My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, both important editions to Spicer's oeuvre which before had consisted primarily of The Collected Books of Jack Spicer
The Collected Books of Jack Spicer
The Collected Books of Jack Spicer first appeared in 1975, ten years after the death of Jack Spicer. It was "edited & with a commentary by Robin Blaser" and published in Santa Rosa, CA by Black Sparrow Press...
, edited by Robin Blaser
Robin Blaser
Robin Francis Blaser was an author and poet in both the United States and Canada.-Personal background:Born in Denver, Colorado, Blaser grew up in Idaho, and came to Berkeley, California, in 1944. There he met Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, becoming a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance of...
, (Black Sparrow Press, 1975). My Vocabulary Did This To Me won the 1999 American Book Award
American Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
from the Before Columbus Foundation.
External links
- Peter Gizzi Author Home Page this extensive resource includes link to poems, writings, sound files, and reviews by others
- Exhibit at The Academy of American Poets includes links to on-line poems & audio recordings
- Essays on Peter Gizzi's Revival
- Review of The Outernationale by Simona Schneider