http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/08/city_hall_announces_new_p.php
"It is wonderful to announce the new Poet Laureate position,” Poet Laureate Task Force Chair Dana Gioia said. “Los Angeles is the creative capital of the 21st century. Honoring poets and writers with this new public office is a fitting symbol for the power of the language and the imagination in our remarkable community."--from the article above
http://www.laweekly.com/1999-09-23/news/perhaps-these-are-not-poetic-times-at-all/
"There is a huge renaissance of poetry activity in L.A.," Gioia told me over the phone from his home in Northern California, "but there are no governing standards. You can't have great literature without great standards, and no one wants to hear this, especially in L.A. There's a real mistaken impression that more art is better art, whereas in fact lots of bad poetry will deaden the appetite for good poetry."--from Brendan Bernhard's article "Perhaps These Are Not Poetic Times At All."
Showing posts with label Dana Gioia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dana Gioia. Show all posts
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, July 2, 2010
W.S. Merwin is the new poet laureate--and, no, that doesn't make me want to read his work.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/01/entertainment/main6636396.shtml
Quote from literary gasbag/former NEA head Dana Gioia in THE WASHINGTON POST article about the Merwin announcement: "There is something monklike about Merwin," Gioia said. "He is trying to achieve a contemplative distance from desire and ambition."
Don't have the quote at hand, but I remember reading of Merwin metaphorically holding his nose at the mention of Allen Ginsberg--who wasn't "mature" enough for the Great Man.
All this makes me wish that Kay Ryan had been given another term as Poet Laureate.
Quote from literary gasbag/former NEA head Dana Gioia in THE WASHINGTON POST article about the Merwin announcement: "There is something monklike about Merwin," Gioia said. "He is trying to achieve a contemplative distance from desire and ambition."
Don't have the quote at hand, but I remember reading of Merwin metaphorically holding his nose at the mention of Allen Ginsberg--who wasn't "mature" enough for the Great Man.
All this makes me wish that Kay Ryan had been given another term as Poet Laureate.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Dana Gioia and his sort-of-curse on some Los Angeles poetry.
About a decade ago in the LA WEEKLY, Brendan Bernhard wrote an article about whether poetry still mattered. Bernhard got a quote from now-former NEA head and Northern California literary poetry icon Dana Gioia; Gioia moaned about how "you can't have great poetry without great standards" and accused Los Angeles poetry of being deficient on both counts.
Perhaps Gioia was espousing an occaisional Northern California prejudice about how Southern Californians are too superficial and not intellectually rigorous enough.
But the damage was done in Los Angeles. Varied poetry circles complained about Bernhard's article and Gioia's comments--mostly that they ignored the vast majority of L.A. poetry. Within a couple of years after the quality bomb dropped, one then-prominent Los Angeles male poet/powerful venue host pretty much abandoned his "folk music" approach and made an effort to become Academia-friendly before his departure from the city.
In the year 2009, a lot of Los Angeles poetry is Gioia-friendly--conservative in form, aesthetics and subject matter. Like other parts of the USA, it matters A LOT in L.A. literary circles about who you've studied with, whether you received your MFA, what workshops you've participated in, what Prominent Poet gave you a rhapsodic rave to use on the back of your book/in your press kit, whether you've been Published, whether you've been published by someone with Prestige, etc. etc. And some venues and local critic/tastemakers seem to value poetry control over even mild abandon (i.e. "diversity").
This can have some disastrous effects--I can think of at least one local poet who started out writing relatively accessible, thoughtful material before becoming more contorted and pretentious.
To me, Los Angeles' poet literati need to stop their self-imposed, rather constipated campaign to "improve" local poetry through homogenization and become more appreicative of multiple artistic voices/points of view--and not be filled with tasteful people who long to tamp their artistic visions down to achieve what may well be tenuous and temporary acceptance at best.
Perhaps Gioia was espousing an occaisional Northern California prejudice about how Southern Californians are too superficial and not intellectually rigorous enough.
But the damage was done in Los Angeles. Varied poetry circles complained about Bernhard's article and Gioia's comments--mostly that they ignored the vast majority of L.A. poetry. Within a couple of years after the quality bomb dropped, one then-prominent Los Angeles male poet/powerful venue host pretty much abandoned his "folk music" approach and made an effort to become Academia-friendly before his departure from the city.
In the year 2009, a lot of Los Angeles poetry is Gioia-friendly--conservative in form, aesthetics and subject matter. Like other parts of the USA, it matters A LOT in L.A. literary circles about who you've studied with, whether you received your MFA, what workshops you've participated in, what Prominent Poet gave you a rhapsodic rave to use on the back of your book/in your press kit, whether you've been Published, whether you've been published by someone with Prestige, etc. etc. And some venues and local critic/tastemakers seem to value poetry control over even mild abandon (i.e. "diversity").
This can have some disastrous effects--I can think of at least one local poet who started out writing relatively accessible, thoughtful material before becoming more contorted and pretentious.
To me, Los Angeles' poet literati need to stop their self-imposed, rather constipated campaign to "improve" local poetry through homogenization and become more appreicative of multiple artistic voices/points of view--and not be filled with tasteful people who long to tamp their artistic visions down to achieve what may well be tenuous and temporary acceptance at best.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
National Poetry Month is just one day away.
April is National Poetry Month--and here's a link to a YouTube video of two of my poems about poetry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0D17w-aq8&feature=channel_page
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