Nada Gordon (born 1964) is an American poet. She is a pioneer of

Flarf poetry 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 o ...

and a founding member of the Flarf Collective.

Life

Nada Gordon was born in 1964 in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. Gordon was a precocious poet, exposed to poetry early by parents who both wrote poetry, she remembers dictating poems to her mother at seven. Her junior high school poetry teacher was

Cole Swensen Cole Swensen (born 1955, in Kentfield, California) is an American poet, translator, editor, copywriter, and professor. Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of more than ten poetry collections and as many translation ...

. While still in her teens, she taught a poetry workshop at the

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

. In 1988, she emigrated to Japan. There she taught English, performed vocals for the band IRO and co-edited the magazine AYA. In 1999, she returned to the US and settled in Brooklyn.

Education

In her late teens, Gordon took a classes at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, working with Kathleen Fraser, Stephen Rodefer, and

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 studie ...

. Fraser's curriculum included talks with visiting writers and through these Gordon was exposed to

Carla Harryman Carla Harryman (born January 11, 1952) is an American poet, essayist, and playwright often associated with the Language poets. She teaches Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University and serves on the MFA faculty of the Milton Avery School of t ...

, Steve Benson,

Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her series of novels ''The Vampire Chronicles''. B ...

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 ...

. She received an MA in Literature at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, completing her thesis on poet

Bernadette Mayer Bernadette Mayer (May 12, 1945 – November 22, 2022) was an American poet, writer, and visual artist associated with both the Language poets and the New York School. Early life and education Bernadette Mayer was born in a predominantly Ge ...

in 1986.

Work

In 2000, Gordon, along with Gary Sullivan, Mitch Highfill, Drew Gardner and K Silem Mohammad began the practice that resulted in the creation of the

Flarf 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 o ...

movement, submitting intentionally atrocious poems to the website Poetry.com, which had scammed Sullivan's father, to see if the vanity press would draw the line at publishing their compositions.

Awards

* 2014, Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award

List of works

Poetry collections * ''Vile Lilt '' (Roof Books, 2013) * ''Scented Rushes'' (Roof Books, 2010) * ''Folly'' (Roof Books, 2007) * ''V. Imp'' (Faux Pr, 2002) * ''Foriegnn Bodie'' (Detour Press, 2001) * ''Swoon (Granary)'' (Granary Books, 2001) * ''Are Not Our Lowing Heifers Sleeker Than Night-Swollen Mushrooms?'' (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001)

References

External links

Form's Life: An Exploration of the Works of Bernadette Mayer
by Nada Gordon. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Nada 1964 births Living people 21st-century American poets 20th-century American poets 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers American women poets Writers from Oakland, California Poets from California University of California, Berkeley alumni San Francisco State University alumni