Andrew Durbin is an American poet, novelist, and editor. As of 2019, he has served as editor-in-chief of

Frieze magazine ''frieze'' is a contemporary art magazine, published eight times a year from London. History ''frieze'' was founded in 1991 by Frieze Art Fair founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover with artist Tom Gidley. A Damien Hirst butterfly painting ...

. Prior to his position at Frieze, he co-founded Company Gallery, served as the Talks Curator at the

Poetry Project The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan by, among others, the poet and translator Paul Blackburn. It has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetry f ...

, and served as a co-editor at Wonder press. Durbin is the author of two novels books and several chapbooks. He lives and works in London.

Early life and education

Durbin was born in Orlando, Florida and raised in

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. He moved to New York in 2008 and studied poetry and classics at

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, ...

. He graduated in 2011 and subsequently moved to New York City.

Work

Upon arrival to New York, Durbin worked at the Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, curating the Queer Division's reading series. Durbin then went on work at the

and served as their Talks Curator. He regularly attends and speaks at poetry readings in New York. Durbin and poet Ben Fama began a series of nightlife parties called Crush Parties. Upon invitation to the parties, guests were instructed to email the hosts names of their crushes which prompted a second-wave of invitations sent out to the crushes. Simultaneously, Durbin began collaborating with Ben Fama and Trisha Low on a small, independent press called Wonder. Wonder has published books, pamphlets, and limited edition art prints from writers and visual artists such as Kate Durbin, Kevin Killian, Juliana Huxtable, Ariana Reines, and Jacolby Satterwhite. In 2015, a poem titled, "You've Been Flirting Again," was included in

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

's zine '' Boys Don't Cry'' which accompanied the release of Ocean's second studio album, ''

Blonde Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...

''. Durbin has written for numerous print and digital art publications including

artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

, BOMB,

Texte zur Kunst ''Texte zur Kunst'' is a German contemporary art magazine. History ''Texte zur Kunst'' was founded in 1990 in Cologne by art historian Stefan Germer and art critic Isabelle Graw. It has been published in Berlin since 2000. Since the death of ...

, and

Triple Canopy Triple Canopy, Inc., is an American private security company that provides integrated security, mission support and risk management services to corporate, government and nonprofit clients. The firm was founded in May 2003 by United States Army, ...

. He has written art criticism on a number of poets and visual artists including Bernadette Meyer, Robert Glück, Greer Lankton, and

Robert Longo Robert Longo (born 1953) is an American artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. Longo became first well known in the 1980s for his ''Men in the Cities'' drawing and print series, which depict sharply dressed men and women writhing in cont ...

. Durbin moderated the Open Score 2016 panel ''Generation You'' presented by New Museum and Rhizome. Panelists included

Jacob Ciocci Jacob Ciocci (born 1977) is an American visual artist, performance artist, musician, and professor. Along with sister Jessica Ciocci and friend Ben Jones, he was one of the three founding members of Paper Rad, an artist collective active from 2000 ...

, Simon Denny, Juliana Huxtable, and

Cathy Park Hong Cathy Park Hong (born August 7, 1976) is an American poet, writer, and professor who has published three volumes of poetry. Much of her work includes mixed language and serialized narrative. She was named on the 2021 Time 100 list for her writing ...

Editorial

In early November 2017,

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

announced that Durbin has been named Senior Editor for the Americas at

Frieze Magazine ''frieze'' is a contemporary art magazine, published eight times a year from London. History ''frieze'' was founded in 1991 by Frieze Art Fair founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover with artist Tom Gidley. A Damien Hirst butterfly painting ...

. In 2019, Durbin was named editor-in-chief of Frieze. Durbin edited Kevin Killian’s ''Fascination: Memoirs'' (Semiotexte, 2018) as well as the chapbook series, ''Say bye to reason and hi to everything'' ( Capricious, 2015).

''MacArthur Park''

In September 2017, Durbin released his first full-length novel, titled ''MacArthur Park.'' The book takes its name from a Donna Summer cover of the song ''MacArthur Park'', originally sung by

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...

and written/composed by

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including " Up, Up and Away", " By the Time I Get to Phoenix", " MacArthur Park", " Wichita Lineman", " Wo ...

. The book's plot loosely follows a fictional poet and art writer living in New York during and after the landfall of

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

in New York City in 2012. Writer

Lynne Tillman Lynne Tillman (born January 1, 1947) is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. She is currently Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany and teaches at the School of Visual Arts' Art Cri ...

says of ''MacArthur Park'', "It’s wry, dramatic, cool, knowing, funny, sobering, a novel of unsparing consciousness that spars with the news and effects of uncontrollable weather. Durbin registers the temperature of our nights and days, with perfect pitch conversations and commentaries on pop culture, utopian collectives, the art world, politics, sex, emotions." The book is dedicated to artists Jacolby Satterwhite and

Stewart Uoo Stewart Uoo (born 1985, California) is an American artist. Uoo's art practice explores where the social and digital overlap often incorporating fashion and video game aesthetics into his watercolors, sculptures, and video pieces. Uoo's artworks ha ...

Skyland

Durbin's second book of fiction, ''Skyland'', is an "impressionistic novella" that follows a writer on the island of

Patmos Patmos ( el, Πάτμος, ) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where John of Patmos received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. One of the northern ...

with his close friend, a character based on the poet

Shiv Kotecha The word Shiv or shiv may refer to: People with the name * Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a West Indies cricketer nicknamed Shiv Arts, entertainment, and media * Shiv, a fictional location in Magic: The Gathering, see Dominaria * Shiv, a villain in the ...

. Both protagonists attempt to locate a painting made by the French novelist and photographer Hervé Guibert. According to Publishers Marketplace's website, Durbin is working on a biography of

Peter Hujar Peter Hujar (October 11, 1934 – November 26, 1987) was an American photographer best known for his black and white portraits. He has been recognized posthumously as a major American photographer of the late-twentieth century. Yet Hujar's work r ...

and

Paul Thek Paul Thek (November 2, 1933 – August 10, 1988) was an American painter, sculptor and installation artist. Thek was active in both the United States and Europe, exhibiting several installations and sculptural works over the course of his life. Po ...

Themes

Style Durbin writes with, "aesthetic disinterest, waning faith, and terminal irony," notes poet Trisha Low. His poems often read as prose and wind up self-consciously adopting many voices, forms, and styles of "non-poetic" writing. Influences Durbin has cited a range of influences, such as the

New Narrative New Narrative is a movement and theory of experimental writing launched in San Francisco in the late 1970s by Robert Glück and Bruce Boone. New Narrative strove to represent subjective experience honestly without pretense that a text can be absol ...

movement of poetry with writers like Gary Indiana, Bob Glück, Bruce Boone, and Dodie Bellamy; Conceptual writer Robert Fitterman; the work of Language writers

Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work ''My Life'' (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), a ...

and

Leslie Scalapino Leslie Scalapino (July 25, 1944 – May 28, 2010) was an American poet, experimental prose writer, playwright, essayist, and editor, sometimes grouped in with the Language poets, though she felt closely tied to the Beat poets. Writes Hejinian: ...

; and writers Chris Kraus,

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trau ...

, and

. He also cites

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is a LAMBDA Literary Award-winning American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. No ...

' ''The Importance of Being Iceland'' as a foundational text for fusing his art writing and poetry with his personal life.

Selected bibliography

* ''Mature Themes'' (Nightboat Books, 2014). ISBN 9781937658236 * ''MacArthur Park'' (Nightboat Books, 2017). OCLCbr>982090502
* ''Skyland'' (Nightboat Books, 2020). ISBN 9781643620275 * ''Speed of Life'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025).

References

External links

Writer's website

Wonder Press

Panels and performances

Open Score 2016: Intro + Panel 1: Generation You
presented by

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

and Rhizome
POETRY WILL BE MADE BY ALL! – 89plus After Babel Stockholm Sessions
2015
Read the Room: A Poetry Reading, Art Basel, 2015

Andrew Durbin reads "Track Star" and "You Are My Ducati
" Westbrau Exhibition Space, Zurich, Switzerland , 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Durbin, Andrew Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American editors American male poets American male novelists Bard College alumni