Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with

language poetry The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalap ...

. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, ''The Alphabet''. He has now begun writing a new poem, ''Universe'', the first section of which appears to be called ''Revelator''.

Life and work

In the 1960s, Silliman attended Merritt College,

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 ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, but left without attaining a degree. He lived in the San Francisco Bay area for more than 40 years. As a published poet, he has taught in the Graduate Writing Program at

, at the

University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

, at

New College of California New College of California was a college founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President John Leary. It ceased operations in early 2008. New College's main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission ...

and, in shorter stints, 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 ...

and

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. Silliman has worked as a political organizer, a lobbyist, an

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

, a newspaper editor, a director of development, and as the executive editor of the Socialist Review (US). While in San Francisco, he served on numerous community boards, including the 1980 Census Oversight Committee, the Arson Task Force of the San Francisco Fire Department, and the State Department of Health's Task Force on Health Conditions in Locale Detention Facilities. Silliman worked as a

market analyst Marketing strategy allows Organizational structure, organizations to focus limited resources on best opportunities to increase sales and achieve a competitive advantage in the market. Strategic marketing emerged in the 1970s/80s as a distinct fie ...

in the computer industry before retiring at the end of 2011. Silliman classifies his poetry as part of a lifework, which he calls '' Ketjak'' (the name refers to a form of Balinese dance drama based on an ancient text.) "Ketjak" is also the name of the first poem of ''The Age of Huts.'' If and when completed, the entire work will consist of ''The Age of Huts'' (1974–1980), ''Tjanting'' (1979–1981), ''The Alphabet'' (1979–2004), and ''Universe'' (2005-).

Marriage and family

In 1995 Silliman moved to

Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the De ...

, where he resides with his wife Krishna and two sons, Colin and Jesse.

Language poetry and critical writing

Although he has come to be associated with the

Language poets The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalapi ...

for most of his career, Silliman came of age under the sign of

Donald Allen Donald Merriam Allen (Iowa, 1912 – San Francisco, August 29, 2004) was an American editor, publisher and translator of American literature. He is best known for his project ''The New American Poetry 1945-1960'' (1960), one of the anthologie ...

's ''

New American Poetry New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'' (1960). Regarding the latter publication, he's said that it is: Silliman was first published in Berkeley in 1965. In the 1960s he was published by journals associated with what he calls the

School of Quietude Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wr ...

, such as ''Poetry Northwest,'' ''TriQuarterly,'' ''Southern Review'' and ''Poetry.'' Silliman thought that such early acceptance was less a recognition of his skills than a lack of standards or rigor characteristic of that literary tendency; he began looking for alternatives. Some of these alternatives were initiated through various editing projects that he took part in, which gave him the opportunity to work with a wide range of poets. One of the more influential projects was Silliman's newsletter called ''Tottels'' (1970–81), that was one of the early venues for ''Language Poetry''. He says that "The Dwelling Place," a feature article on nine poets published in '' Alcheringa'' (1975), was his "first attempt to write about language poetry". In 1976 and 1977, he co-curated a reading series with Tom Mandel, at the ''Grand Piano'', a coffee house. Nearly three decades later, some of the poets who took part in this series were still collaborating on a work based on these readings. This collaboration became part of what was called "an experiment in collective autobiography," co-authored by ten of these Language poets in San Francisco. When the project was completed, it consisted of 10 volumes in all. The other nine writers included were Bob Perelman,

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 ...

, Steve Benson,

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 ...

, Tom Mandel,

Kit Robinson Kit Robinson (born May 17, 1949) is an American poet, translator, writer and musician. An early member of the San Francisco Language poets circle, he has published 28 books of poetry. Life and work Born in Evanston, Illinois, Robinson graduated ...

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 ...

, Rae Armantrout, and

Ted Pearson Ted Pearson (born 1948 in Palo Alto, California) is an American poet. He is often associated with the Language poets. Life and work Pearson was born in 1948 in Palo Alto, California. He began studying liturgical music in 1960, instrumental music ...

. " om 1976 to 1979 the authors took part in a reading and performance series. The writing project, begun in 1998, was undertaken as an online collaboration, first via an interactive web site and later through a listserv."

Criticism

Silliman's mature critical writing dates to the early/mid-1970s. Asked to discuss the role of reference in poetry, he wrote the essay, "Disappearance of the Author, Appearance of the World," which was first published in the journal ''Art Con.'' Soon he edited a special issue of the magazine ''Margins,'' devoted to the work of the poet

Clark Coolidge Clark Coolidge (born February 26, 1939) is an American poet. Background As a teenager, Coolidge attended Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. Coolidge attended Brown University, where his father taught in the music department. After ...

. He began to give talks and contribute essays on a regular basis thereafter. He has said that he was influenced by the "New American Poetry", referring to the poets who were published in Donald Allen's groundbreaking anthology ''

The New American Poetry 1945–1960 ''The New American Poetry 1945–1960'' is a poetry anthology edited by Donald Allen and published in 1960. It aimed to pick out the "third generation" of American modernist poets, and included quite a number of poems fresh from the little magazin ...

''. Today, these same figures have been long recognized. In 1986, Silliman's anthology, ''In the American Tree'', a collection of American language poetry, was published by the National Poetry Foundation. He writes a

weblog 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 ...

devoted to contemporary poetry and poetics.

Legacy and honors

In 2012, Silliman was one of three

Kelly Writers House The Kelly Writers House is a mixed-use programming and community space on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Founded in 1995 by a group of students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, the Kel ...

Fellows at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, together with Karen Finley and

John Barth John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a ...

. In 2010, he received the annual Levinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation. Silliman was a 2003 Literary fellow of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and a 2002 Fellow of the Pennsylvania Arts Council, as well as a PEW Fellow in the Arts in 1998. He is memorialized in the Addison Anthology, a sidewalk portion in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

containing plaques honoring poets and authors. Silliman was voted the Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere

Bibliography

*''Crow'' (1971) *''Mohawk'' (1973) *''Nox'' (1974) *''Ketjak'' (San Francisco:

This Press ''This'' is a poetry journal associated with what would later be called Language poetry because during the time span in which ''This'' was published, "many poets of the emerging Language school were represented in its pages". The first three issu ...

, 1978) *''Sitting Up, Standing, Taking Steps'' (1978) *''Legend'' (1980, with Bruce Andrews,

Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein may refer to: * Charles Bernstein (composer) (born 1943), American composer of film and television scores * Charles Bernstein (poet) Charles Bernstein (born April 4, 1950) is an American poet, essayist, editor, and literary sc ...

, Ray DiPalma,

Steve McCaffery Steven McCaffery (born January 24, 1947) is a Canadian poet and scholar who was a professor at York University. He currently holds the David Gray Chair at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. McCaffery was born in Sheffie ...

) *''Tjanting'' (1981; new edition from

Salt Publishing Salt Publishing is an independent publisher whose origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched ''Salt Magazine'' in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry ...

, 2002) *''BART'' (1982) *''ABC'' (1983) *''Paradise'' (1985) *''The Age of Huts'' (1986) *''In the American Tree: Language, Realism, Thought'' ( National Poetry Foundation, 1986; second edition, 2001: anthology) *''Lit'' (1987) *''The New Sentence'' (1987, criticism) *''What'' (1988) *''Manifest'' (1990) * *''Demo to Ink'' (1992) *''Toner'' (1992) *''Jones'' (1993) *''N/O'' (1994) *''Xing'' (1996) *''MultiPlex'' (1998, with Karen Mac Cormack) *® (1999) *''Sunset Debris'' (ubu ebook, 2002), from The Age of Huts *''2197'' (ubu ebook, 2004,) from The Age of Huts *''Woundwood'' (2004) *''Under Albany'' (

, 2004), memoir *''The Chinese Notebook'' (2004, ubu ebook) from ''The Age of Huts'' *(contributor, to each of the 10 volumes)''The Grand Piano: An Experiment In Collective Autobiography'' (with Bob Perelman,

, Steve Benson,

, Tom Mandel, Rae Armantrout,

, and

) (Mode A/This Press, 2007: ) *''The Age of Huts ()'' (University of California Press, 2007) *''The Alphabet'' (University of Alabama Press, 2008) *''Wharf Hypothesis'' (Lines Chapbooks, 2011) - chapbook, from ''Northern Soul'' *''Revelator'' (2013) - the opening poem of a projected 360-poem sequence entitled ''Universe'' *''Northern Soul'' (Shearsman Books, 2014) - the second book of ''Universe''. *''Against Conceptual Poetry'' (Counterpath, 2014; criticism)

Critical studies and reviews of Silliman's work

;''Leningrad'' *

References

External links

*
EPC pagePennSound pageRon Silliman on Poets.org
Profile and poems.

Silliman's Blog
A weblog focused on contemporary poetry and poetics.

Silliman discusses background & conception of his influential "manifesto" ''The New Sentence''

– given September 16, 1979 at the San Francisco Art Institute in Bob Perelman’s Talk Series
Ron Silliman, making poetry, unmaking rules
review of ''The Age of Huts ()'' by Andrew Ervin, at philly.com, June 24, 2007
The Grand Piano
website devoted to the 10 volumes of "Collective Autobiography" by 10 of the so-called "West Coast" group of Language poets, including Silliman, which began serial publication in November 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Silliman, Ron 1946 births American male poets American bloggers Language poets Living people Writers from San Francisco Pew Fellows in the Arts Writers from Pasco, Washington San Francisco State University alumni San Francisco State University faculty American male bloggers