Pierre Joris
Encyclopedia
Pierre Joris, born in Strasbourg
, France
in 1946 and raised in Ettelbruck
, Luxembourg
, is a poet and translator. He left Luxembourg
at nineteen and since then has lived in the US, Great Britain, North Africa and France. In 1992 he returned to the Mid-Hudson valley and teaches in the Department of English at University at Albany
.
He has equally written and published many essays, introductions etc.:
Joris has also published a range of translations, both into English & into French, the most recent being :
Miscellaneous:
into English (published by Green Integer and Sun&Moon Press); a "Selections" edition of Celan; and most recently his "Meridian" speech with materials:
he has published a two-volume anthology of 20th Century Avant-Garde writings, Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry, (University of California Press) the first volume of which received the 1996 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
.
Rothenberg's & Joris's previous collaboration, pppppp: Selected Writings of Kurt Schwitters
(Temple University Press, 1993, reissued in 2002 by Exact Change) was awarded the 1994 PEN Center USA West Literary Award for Translation.
Rothenberg & Joris recently co-edited & co-translated The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Writings of Pablo Picasso
(Exact Change, 2004).
An issue of Samizdat
commemorates the Joris/Rothenberg collaboration with original work and translations by both poets, and essays and poems for and about the poets.
Other performances include:
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1946 and raised in Ettelbruck
Ettelbruck
Ettelbruck is a commune with city status in central Luxembourg, with a population of approximately 7,500. As of 2005, the town of Ettelbruck itself, which lies in the east of the commune, has a population of 6,191. The town of Warken and Grentzingen are also within the commune...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, is a poet and translator. He left Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
at nineteen and since then has lived in the US, Great Britain, North Africa and France. In 1992 he returned to the Mid-Hudson valley and teaches in the Department of English at University at Albany
University at Albany, The State University of New York
The State University of New York at Albany, also known as University at Albany, State University of New York, SUNY Albany or simply UAlbany, is a public university located in Albany, Guilderland, and East Greenbush, New York, United States; is the senior campus of the State University of New York ...
.
Poetry and translations
Joris has published over 20 books and chapbooks of his own poetry, among these :-
-
- Breccia: Selected Poems 1972-1986 (Editions PHI / Station Hill)
- Poasis: Selected Poems 1986-1999 (Wesleyan University Press)
- h.j.r. (EarthWind Press, Ann Arbor)
- Winnetou Old (Meow Press, Buffalo, NY)
- Turbulence (St. Lazaire Press, Rhinebeck)
- Aljibar (PHI, 2007), a bilingual edition with French translations by Eric Sarner.
- Meditations on the Stations of Mansour Al-Hallaj (Anchorite Press)
- Aljibar II (PHI, 2008), again a bilingual edition with French translations by Eric Sarner.
-
He has equally written and published many essays, introductions etc.:
-
-
- A Nomad Poetics (Wesleyan University Press) 2003.
- Justifying the Margins: Essays 1990-2006 (Salt Publishing) 2009.
-
Joris has also published a range of translations, both into English & into French, the most recent being :
-
-
- 4x1: Translations of Tristan TzaraTristan TzaraTristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
, Rilke, Jean-Pierre DupreyJean-Pierre DupreyJean-Pierre Duprey was a French poet and sculptor, one of the modern examples of an accursed poet....
and Habib TengourHabib TengourHabib Tengour is an French-Algerian poet, sociologist and anthropologist. He was born in Mostaganem in eastern Algeria in 1947. The Tengour family moved to France when Habib was five years old, and he grew up there in a working-class household. He studied sociology in France and continued his...
(Inconundrum Press) - Abdelwahab Meddeb : Malady of Islam (Basic Books)
- Habib Tengour : Empedokles's Sandal (Duration Press)
- Also noteworthy are his translations of Maurice BlanchotMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
's The Unavowable Community and Edmond JabèsEdmond Jabes----Edmond Jabès was a Jewish writer and poet, and one of the best known literary figures to write in French after World War II.- Life :...
's From the Desert to the Book (Station Hill Press). - As well as his numerous translations from English into French: Jack KerouacJack KerouacJean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
's Mexico City Blues, but also Carl SolomonCarl SolomonCarl Solomon was an American writer.-Biography:Solomon was born in the Bronx of New York City. His father's death in 1939 had a profoundly negative effect on his early life...
, Gregory CorsoGregory CorsoGregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, Pete TownshendPete TownshendPeter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
, Julian BeckJulian BeckJulian Beck was an American actor, director, poet, and painter.-Early life:Beck was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in New York City, the son of Mabel Lucille , a teacher, and Irving Beck, a businessman. He briefly attended Yale University, but dropped out to pursue writing and...
and Sam ShepardSam ShepardSam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
.
- 4x1: Translations of Tristan Tzara
-
Miscellaneous:
-
-
- In 2007 his CD Routes, Not Roots appeared, with Munir Beken (oud), Michael Bisio (bass), Ben Chadabe (percussion) & Mitch Elrod (guitar).
-
Celan translations
Joris has translated in full three acclaimed works of poetry by Paul CelanPaul Celan
Paul Celan was a poet and translator...
into English (published by Green Integer and Sun&Moon Press); a "Selections" edition of Celan; and most recently his "Meridian" speech with materials:
- Lightduress (received the 2005 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation);
- Threadsuns;
- Breathturn (re-issued recently as a Green Integer book);
- Paul Celan : Selections (University of California Press);
- The Meridian: Final Version - Drafts - Materials (Standford University Press)
Collaborations with Jerome Rothenberg
With Jerome RothenbergJerome Rothenberg
Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics and poetry performance.-Early life and work:...
he has published a two-volume anthology of 20th Century Avant-Garde writings, Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry, (University of California Press) the first volume of which received the 1996 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
According to its website, PEN Oakland was founded in 1989 by Ishmael Reed, who came up with the idea, and co-founders Floyd Salas, Reginald Lockett and Claire Ortalda, in order to “promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the...
.
Rothenberg's & Joris's previous collaboration, pppppp: Selected Writings of Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
(Temple University Press, 1993, reissued in 2002 by Exact Change) was awarded the 1994 PEN Center USA West Literary Award for Translation.
Rothenberg & Joris recently co-edited & co-translated The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Writings of Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
(Exact Change, 2004).
An issue of Samizdat
Samizdat (poetry magazine)
Samizdat was an international poetry magazine published in Chicago from 1998 until 2004 and edited by the poet Robert Archambeau. It was noted for its unusual format, being printed on large newsprint pages. Contributors included Adam Zagajewski as well as Clayton Eshleman, Pierre Joris, Jerome...
commemorates the Joris/Rothenberg collaboration with original work and translations by both poets, and essays and poems for and about the poets.
Performance art and collaboration
As reader and performance artist, Joris's work with performance artist / singer / painter Nicole Peyrafitte includes :- dePLACEments (premiered from 27 June to 2 July 2005 at Cave Poésie, Toulouse, France);
- Manifesto&a (premiered in Luxembourg, July 1998);
- Riding The Lines, (European Tour summer 1997; New York City performance at the Here Inn, Dec 1997).
Other performances include:
- Pierre's Words (Toward an Opera), a collaboration with composer Joel Chadabe & the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company (Premiered May 3, 1997, The Egg, Albany);
- Frozen Shadows, a dance & reading performance based on Winnetou Old, choreographed by Ellen Sinopoli & danced by the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company (Union College, Schenectady, NY January 21, 1996 "The Egg," Albany, NY, April 12 & 13, 1995);
- This Morning (part of Music Juggle) a multimediaMultimediaMultimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
collaboration with composer Xavier Chabot (Premiered at Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteStephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
, Troy, NY February 5, 1997. Chabot presented this work in Japan in late 1997.
External links
- Nomadics Joris's own weblog with links to other useful Joris sites
- Joris Homepage
- Rothenberg-Joris special issue of Samizdat
- Two Poems by Pierre Joris @ Melancholia's Tremulous Dreadlocks
- Pierre Joris on the book 'Heidegger and Fascism'
- Interview with Pierre Joris
- Faculty Homepage at SUNY-Albany