ChicagoPostmodernPoetry.Com
About
Chicago Postmodern Poetry.com grew out of frustration trying to find information easily for Chicago and the Midwest Region's varied poetry scene. The goal of this site is to bring together reading series schedules, reviews of readings, book reviews and schedules of special events that occur in the Chicago area. CPMP also wants to promote readings in cities that are near enough to Chicago to be visited for poetic events such as Milwaukee, Iowa City, Normal, South Bend or Champaign and make them easy to access for poets, lovers of poetry and students.
Chicago Postmodern Poetry.com does have an aesthetic firmly rooted for lack of a better term in the innovative 'avant garde' tradition that begins in the last century with a varied group of writers, Pound, French Poetry, Latin American Poetry, Italian Poetry, Russian Poetry, Williams, Olson, Black Mountain, Rothenberg, Ginzburg, Creeley, Stein, Zukofsky, HD, and moves through Language Poetry, The New York School, and Ethnopoetics to our present Postmodern, Post-Language moment. The great poets of the Postmodern generation, Bernstein, Antin, Palmer, Hoover, DuPlessis, Mayer, Joris, and younger voices Gizzi, Jarnot, Willis, Clements, Hofer, Daly, and many others are showing us the way toward a new poetics that is rooted in the sense of making things new we will celebrate them here unapologetically.
Poetic Profiles/Chicago Poetic Profiles
Monthly we will be profiling a local Chicago/Midwest and a National poet on this site, our first profile; Catherine Daly, is live now on the site and she is a friend of Chicago Post Modern Poetry.com and we are in her debt for being the first to submit to a Poetic Profile. In future months we will be profiling Jen Hofer, who is an innovative poet in her own right and is arguably the best translator of Mexican poetry working today in the US as was shown in her new anthology Sin Puertas Visibles. We will also be profiling; Kari Edwards, Charles Bernstein, Peter Gizzi, and many others.
CPMP will also be profiling Chicago's own local innovative poets. Chicago is a city where much is going on poetically, poets such as Jesse Seldess, John Tipton, Kerri Sonnenberg, Dan Beachy-Quick, William Fuller, Mark Tardi, Eric Elshtain, Matthias Regan, Peter O'Leary, Chuck Stebelston, Simone Muench, Garin Gycholl, William Allegrezza, and many others make Chicago one of the best places to be an innovative poet. CPMP has many poets to profile from our own backyard and I am committed to promoting their work and this site exists for them.
Our Choices
CPMP is also committed to helping younger and local poets survive as poets. The desire to do this has led to some choices, we will not print poems here except as part of reviews. If you love a poet please buy his/her books and support our art form.
CPMP wants you to visit poet's websites and buy small press literary magazines and chap books please put your money where your passion is located have one less coffee and buy poetry books.
This site does not list every poetry event in the Chicago Region, there are many great general poetry sites and I urge you to see the links that I have on this site to visit them as well for more general events.
The Community
CPMP is a site open to the community, if you want to write a review of a book or reading series please feel free to do so and submit it to us we will publish it provided that it meets two criteria, it is well written and it does not include any personal attacks on poets or others. Secondly book reviews are always welcomed and encouraged. Also if you have suggestions send them as well and we will make changes if they are warranted. In the end CPMP exists to support the great Innovative poetic institutions in Chicago and cities nearby I want to thank in advance the following people who made this site possible, William Allegrezza, (Indiana University NW) , Kerri Sonnenberg (Discrete Series), Jesse Seldess (Discrete Series), John Beer (Danny's Series), Joel Craig (Danny's Series) John Tipton (Chicago Poetry Project), Chuck Stebelston (Myopic Series) and to Waltraud Haas, my wife, who designed the site; I am forever and always in your debt for so much of which this website but a grain of sand on a long Brazilian beach.
Ray Bianchi, Editor
editor@chicagopostmodernpoetry.com