Amy Catanzano (born 1974) is an American poet from

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

. She is the author of ''Multiversal'', which won the PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry. Michael Palmer describes her work as "a poetic vision of multiple orders and multiple forms, of a fluid time set loose from linearity, and an open space that is motile and multidimensional." Since 2009 she has published writing on a theory and practice called "quantum poetics," which explores the intersections of poetry and science, particularly physics. Her other interests include cross-genre texts and the literary avant-garde.

Life and work

Her first book of poetry
Epiphany
was published by

Anne Waldman Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activ ...

. In 2009, Catanzano'
Multiversal
was published as the recipient of the Poets Out Loud Prize from

Fordham University Press The Fordham University Press is a publishing house, a division of Fordham University, that publishes primarily in the humanities and the social sciences. Fordham University Press was established in 1907 and is headquartered at the university's Lin ...

. ''Multiversal'' went on to receive the PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry. Previous winners of the PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry include

Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine (; born September 4, 1963) is an American poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Her book of poetry, '' Citizen: An American L ...

, Craig Santos Perez, Seido Ray Ronci,

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, Brian Turner,

Martha Ronk Martha Clare Ronk (born 1940 Cleveland, Ohio) is an American poet. Life She graduated from Wellesley College, and Yale University with a Ph.D. She taught at Colorado University and Otis College of Art and Design, and Naropa University Summer Writi ...

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Carl Rakosi Carl Rakosi (November 6, 1903 – June 25, 2004) was the last surviving member of the original group of poets who were given the rubric Objectivist. He was still publishing and performing his poetry well into his 90s. Early life Rakosi was ...

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, Czeslaw Milosz,

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (; born October 5, 1947, in Beijing, China) is a contemporary poet. Winner of two American Book Awards, her work is often associated with the Language poets, Language School, the poetry of the New York School (art), New York ...

, Michael Palmer, and

David Antin David Abram Antin (February 1, 1932 – October 11, 2016) was an American poet, critic and performance artist. Education and early career Antin was born in New York City in 1932. After graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School, he earned hi ...

. Catanzano's third full-length collection
Starlight in Two Million: A Neo-Scientific Novella
combines poetry with fiction. It was published by Noemi Press in 2014 and won the Noemi Book Award. Cindra Halm in ''Rain Taxi'' writes that it "is a mind-full, mine-filled, field of literary, aesthetic, scientific, and imaginative constructs that take forms as collage, cultural allegory, anti-war expression, epistolary conversation, and song-of-joy-in-risk-taking, to list merely a few." Catanzano is an associate professor in creative writing and the poet-in-residence a
Wake Forest University
She earned her MFA from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

and taught at

Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself as B ...

until 2011, serving as the administrative director of the Department of Writing and Poetics in th
Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
She was also the managing editor for the literary magazin
Bombay Gin

Awards and honors

Arts and Humanities Award from Wake Forest University to conduct research on th
Dark Energy Survey
at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
2018 Poet in Residence, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics
Stony Brook University. Arts and Humanities Award from Wake Forest University to conduct research at th
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
in Switzerland. Th

fo

published in 2014. ''Starlight in Two Million: A Neo-Scientific Novella'' is part of the permanent collection of the 'Pataphysical Museum at The London Institute of 'Pataphysics. Th
PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry
fo

Fordham University'
Poets Out Loud Prize
fo
Multiversal
published in 2009.

Quantum poetics

Projects in quantum poetics from 2015 to 2018 includ
World Lines
(Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, 2018)
Wavicles
(3D Poetry Editor, 2017), an
#NODOS
(Next Door Publishers, 2018). In 2015, Catanzano wrote a series of essays about the intersections of poetry and science in
Commentary Series on Quantum Poetics
at Jacket2. In 2012, Gilbert Adair curated a feature in Jacket2
Like A Metaphor
that collects dialogues between contemporary poets who share an interest in science. These poets were

Rae Armantrout Rae Armantrout (born April 13, 1947) is an American poet generally associated with the Language poets. She has published ten books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies. Armantrout currently teaches at the Univers ...

, Amy Catanzano,

John Cayley John Howland Cayley (born 1956) is a Canadian pioneer of writing in digital media as well as a theorist of the practice, a poet, and a Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University (from 2007). Education After moving to the United Kingdom in ...

Tina Darragh Tina Darragh (born 1950) is an American poet who was one of the original members of the Language group of poets. Biography Darragh was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in the south suburb of McDonald, Pennsylvania. She began writing in 1968 and st ...

, Marcella Durand,

Allen Fisher Allen Fisher (born 1944) is a poet, painter, publisher, teacher and performer associated with the British Poetry Revival. Fisher was born in London and started writing poetry in 1962. In the late 1960s, he was involved with Fluxshoe, the United ...

, James Harvey, Peter Middleton, Evelyn Reilly, and

Joan Retallack Joan Retallack (born October 13, 1941) is an American poet, critic, biographer, and multi-disciplinary scholar. She is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Humanities at Bard College where she teaches courses in poetics, poethic ...

. An essay in four sections
"Quantum Poetics: Writing the Speed of Light,"
by Catanzano appeared from 2009 to 2011 in

Jerome Rothenberg Jerome Rothenberg (born December 11, 1931) is an American poet, translator and anthologist, noted for his work in the fields of ethnopoetics and performance poetry. Early life and education Jerome Rothenberg was born and raised in New York ...

'
Poems and Poetics
In it she says of quantum poetics: "By applying principles in theoretical physics to poetry, quantum poetics investigates how physical reality is assumed, imagined, and tested through language at discernible and indiscernible scales of spacetime."

Bibliography

World Lines: A Quantum Supercomputer Poem
(Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, 2018). Limited-edition chapbook.
Wavicles
(3D Poetry Editor, 2017). Digital poem on wave-particle duality created with 3D Editor software. Exhibited at the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival.
from Borealis Tesseract in the Fourth Dimension
(Perfect Wave, 2017).
Let There Be Love
(Spacecraft Press, 2015). Limited-edition pamphlet, reprinted from ''Starlight in Two Million: A Neo-Scientific Novella''.
Starlight in Two Million: A Neo-Scientific Novella
(Noemi Press, 2014). Recipient of the Noemi Press Book Award for Fiction.

(Fordham University Press, 2009). Recipient of the Poets Out Loud Prize and the PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry. ''the heartbeat is a fractal'', e-chapbook (

Ahadada Books Ahadada Books is a small press based in Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Ontario, Canada, specializing in new and experimental poetry and prose. Established in 1998 by Jesse Glass, it includes such authors as Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk, Eileen Tabios ...

, 2009).
iEpiphany
(Erudite Fangs Editions, 2008). Her poetry has been published in

Colorado Review The ''Colorado Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University. History and profile The magazine was established in 1956. It presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fict ...

, Conjunctions,

Denver Quarterly The ''Denver Quarterly'' (known as ''The University of Denver Quarterly'' until 1970) is an avant-garde literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Edward Williams. ''Publisher'' ''Denver Quarterly'' i ...

Fence (magazine) ''Fence'' is a print and online literary publication containing both original work and critical and journalistic coverage of what may be largely termed "experimental" or "avant garde" material. Conceived by Rebecca Wolff in 1997 and first printed ...

New American Writing ''New American Writing'' is an annual American literary magazine emphasizing contemporary American poetry, including a range of innovative contemporary writing. ''New American Writing'' is published by OINK! Press, a nonprofit organization. The ...

Tarpaulin Sky Press Tarpaulin Sky Press is a small press publisher of hybrid texts as well as poetry and prose. Founded by Christian Peet in 2006 and based in Grafton, Vermont, the company produces full-length books, chapbooks, trade paperbacks, hand-bound books, and ...

Washington Square Review ''Washington Square Review'' (usually shortened to ''ON SQU'') is a nationally distributed literary magazine that publishes stories, poems, essays and reviews, many of which are later reprinted in annual anthologies. It is the graduate equivale ...

, and elsewhere.

References

External links

Review of Amy Catanzano's Starlight in Two Million at Rain Taxi

Interview with Amy Catanzano at Jacket2 on Starlight in Two Million

Review of Amy Catanzano's Starlight in Two Million at Queen Mob's Teahouse

Interview with Amy Catanzano at ''Entropy'' magazine on Starlight in Two Million

Amy Catanzano at Jacket2 on defining poetry

io9.com: The Best Books of Poetry for Every Kind of Science Fiction Fan, By Rebecca Porte

Poems and Poetics: The Imaginary Present by Amy Catanzano

Audio collaboration between Amy Catanzano and Kyle Pivarnik for Naropa University's JKS 30/30 Poetic Vision

Tina Brown Celona's review of Amy Catanzano's ''Multiversal'' and ''iEpiphany'' in ''Denver Quarterly''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catanzano, Amy Living people American women poets Writers from Boulder, Colorado Poets from Colorado Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni 1974 births 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers