Site Archives
Contemporaries Essays, The Bachelor
11.03.23
March of 2023 marked the twenty-first “birthday” of ABC’s hit show The Bachelor. Since its inception, the show has presented itself as helping young, wealthy, and conventionally attractive Americans find…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
Dear John, I’ve been reading “Ten Things I Do Every Day” every day. “Now I don’t know anything anymore.” What does sacred, ordinary protocol have to do with knowing anything…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
I. “Dark to Themselves,” the eponymous poem of the sixth section of John Keene’s Punks, begins with a command, which also serves as an ars poetica:”Invent, experiment: chaos . ….
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
One of the joys of encountering John Keene’s work is reading his many interviews. Out of respect for his interviewers and readers, time and again Keene finds ways to expand…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
“Long hours in the study of any text will reveal inner, unseen contours, an abstract architecture,” writes John Keene.1 But even long hours of studying the stories and novellas that…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
“Oh, how delicious and practical it is that people think us strange . . . ” — Hilda Hilst, Letters from a Seducer, translated by John Keene At the outset…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
*** “In the mark event, you enter your signature.” So begins Seismosis, John Keene’s 2006 book of poetry, published as a collaboration with the artist Christopher Stackhouse. The quoted line…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
A student in my recent “Twenty-First Century African American Literature” seminar insisted, “We should stop using the phrase ‘Experimental Literature.’ All creative writing is an experiment.” This is true, but…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
One of the most remarkable features of John Keene’s thoroughly remarkable 1995 publication Annotations is that it manages to register as a distinctly African American work without even attempting to…
Contemporaries Essays, John Keene
10.06.23
This interview took place over Zoom on January 26, 2023. It has been edited for clarity. BME: I wanted to start by talking about your generosity — as an artist,…