Flarf poetry was an '' avant-garde'' poetry movement of the early 21st century. The term ''Flarf'' was coined by the poet Gary Sullivan, who also wrote and published the earliest Flarf poems. Its first practitioners, working in loose collaboration on an email

mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...

, used an approach that rejected conventional standards of quality and explored subject matter and tonality not typically considered appropriate for poetry. One of their central methods, invented by Drew Gardner, was to mine the Internet with odd search terms then distill the results into often hilarious and sometimes disturbing poems, plays and other texts. Pioneers of the movement include Jordan Davis, Katie Degentesh, Drew Gardner,

Nada Gordon Nada Gordon (born 1964) is an American poet. She is a pioneer of Flarf poetry and a founding member of the Flarf Collective. Life Nada Gordon was born in 1964 in Oakland, California. Gordon was a precocious poet, exposed to poetry early by pare ...

, Mitch Highfill, Rodney Koeneke, Michael Magee,

Sharon Mesmer Sharon Mesmer (born in 1960) is a Polish-American poet, fiction writer, essayist and professor of creative writing. Her poetry collections are ''Annoying Diabetic Bitch'' (Combo Books, 2008), ''The Virgin Formica'' (Hanging Loose Press, 2008), '' ...

, Mel Nichols, Katie F-S,

K. Silem Mohammad Kasey Silem Mohammad is an American poet and professor at Southern Oregon University. He is one of the Flarf poets. Life Mohammad was born in Modesto, California, in 1962. He graduated with a BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz in ...

, Rod Smith, Gary Sullivan and others.

Overview

Joyelle McSweeney Joyelle McSweeney (first name meaning: Rejoicing) (born 1976) is a poet, playwright, novelist, critic, and professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her books include ''Toxicon & Arachne'' (2021) from Nightboat Books, ''The Necropastoral: Poetry, ...

wrote in the ''Constant Critic'':

Joshua Clover Joshua Clover (born December 30, 1962 in Berkeley, California) is a writer and a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Davis. He is a published scholar, poet, critic, and journalist whose work has been t ...

wrote in ''The Claudius App'': In 2007,

Barrett Watten Barrett Watten (born October 3, 1948) is an American poet, editor, and educator often associated with the Language poets. He is a professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he has taught modernism and cultural studies ...

, a poet and cultural critic, long associated with the so-called Language poets observed that:How ''The Grand Piano'' Is Being Written
. Discussion about Flarf has been broadcast by the BBC and NPR and published in magazines such as The Atlantic, Bookforum, ''The Constant Critic'', ''Jacket'', The Nation, ''Rain Taxi'', ''The Wall Street Journal'' and The Village Voice. Further discussion has taken place on dozens of

blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

and listservs across the United States, and in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Mexico, and elsewhere.

References

External links

Poems on-line

FLARF: MAINSTREAM Poetry for a MAINSTREAM World
a weblog, active since January 2003, devoted to the poetics of flarf
Flarf Feature at ''Jacket Magazine''
includes work from some of this movement's more recognizable practitioners including: Jordan Davis,

Katie Degentesh Katie is an English feminine name. It is a form Katherine, Kate, Caitlin, Kathleen, Katey and their related forms. It is frequently used on its own. People Sports *Katie Boulter (born 1996), British tennis player *Katie Clark (born 1994), Briti ...

, Benjamin Friedlander, Drew Gardner,

, Rodney Koeneke, Michael Magee,

, Rod Smith, & Gary Sullivan
Poetry Magazine feature
Flarf is Dionysus. Conceptual Writing is Apollo. An introduction to the 21st Century's most controversial poetry movements. *An Italian example of "Googlism": https://ita.calameo.com/read/000115790b3167bea3911

Audio and textual practice: essays and discussion

at the Electronic Poetry Center
''Flarf: From Glory Days to Glory Hole''
an article by Gary Sullivan at ''The Brooklyn Rail''
''Google-Inspired Verse Gains Respect''
an article by Gautam Naik in the ''Wall Street Journal''
''The Tragic and the Wacky''
a review of Gary Sullivan's ''PPL in a Depot'' in ''Jacket Magazine''

an article by Dan Hoy at ''Jacket Magazine''

this essay from the ''Village Voice'' is subtitled: "Awful poems sought and found: From spam to Google, flarf redefines random"
''Studio 360: Schreiber, Flarf, Redman''
discussions, interviews, and readings of flarf poetry
"Can Flarf Ever Be Taken Seriously?"
article in Poets and Writers
Petroleum Hat
The Constant Critic's Joyelle McSweeney reviews Drew Gardner's "Petroleum Hat"
Flarf: Poetry Meme-Surfs With Kanye West and the LOLCats
Article on Flarf in The Atlantic
Flarf Poetry
Flarf primer on Bookforum featuring reviews of "The Anger Scale" by Katie Degentesh, "Petroleum Hat" by Drew Gardner, "Folly" by Nada Gordon, "Musee Mechanique" by Rodney Koeneke, "My Angie Dickinson" by Michael Magee, "Annoying Diabetic Bitch" by

. "Deer Head Nation" by K. Silem Mohammad, & "PPL in a Depot" by Gary Sullivan
"On Flarf" by Rachel HymanCall That a Poem?! Understanding the Flarf Movement
by Jack Chelgren

Music and performance

Music and poetry conducted by Drew Gardner.
Flarf Orchestra live video
The Flarf Orchestra performing live at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Features Katie Degentesh, Nada Gordon and Sharon Mesmer. ;Flarf vs. Conceptualism controversy
Why Conceptualism is Better than Flarf: Vanessa Place
Poet and lawyer

Vanessa Place Vanessa Place (born 1968) is an American writer and criminal appellate attorney. She is the co-director of the Los Angeles-based Les Figues Press. Place has also worked as an occasional screenwriter on television shows such as '' Law & Order: Sp ...