Nancy Spero, “All Writing is Pigshit,” Photo: courtesy of Sophie Kitching, www.sophiekitching.com

For the past two years I’ve been studying Antonin Artaud. I came to Artaud as a way to think more clearly about madness because I’m also writing poems about Pierre Rivière, a young man in the 1800s who killed his family and was or wasn’t crazy, depending on which medical expert/community member/version of Pierre you consult. Thinking about Rivière and madness took me to Artaud and nonsense—particularly the nonsense words in his translation of Lewis Carroll’s work and in some of his later poems. I have started publishing some of my thoughts about Artaud and his work at Jacket2 as a part of their Commentary series. You can read the first installment here. If there are folks out there who are thinking about Artaud, or have been influenced by Artaud, or who are thinking about the intersection between mental health and poetry, I’d love to hear from you.

Inge Bruggeman’s artist book re-composes the prose poem “no one wants to play the victim no one when there is a gun involved and blue.” The text in this accordion-style book stretches thirty-five feet. The event of reading becomes a physical experience. The book’ll be showing at the Holland Project in Reno next Wednesday, the 18th. There’s a reception from 6-7:30 with a reading at 6:30. Come wander the words & talk to Inge about her active reading series.

A big thank you to Inge Bruggeman, who has made an art-object out of “no one wants to be the victim no one when there is a gun involved and blue.” Her book will be in the show Ink + Metal + Paper, curated by the C.C. Stern Type Foundry.