All This Thinking
All This Thinking
The Correspondence of Bernadette Mayer and Clark Coolidge
All This Thinking explores the deep friendship and the critical and creative thinking between Bernadette Mayer and Clark Coolidge, focusing on an intense three-year period in their three decades of correspondence. These fiercely independent American avant-garde poets have influenced and shaped poets and poetic movements by looking for radical poetics in the everyday. This collection of letters provides insight into the poetic scenes that followed World War II while showcasing the artistic practices of Mayer and Coolidge themselves. A fascinating look at both the poets and the world surrounding them, All This Thinking will appeal to all readers interested in post-World War II poetry.
'All This Thinking reveals one of the most significant literary friendships of postwar America. The blend of intimacy, fun, and poetic reflection makes this volume not just a deeply enjoyable read but one that will also provoke new understandings of poetry as lived experience.'--Ann Vickery, author of Leaving Lines of Gender: A Feminist Genealogy of Language Writing
'This collection offers a revealing look behind the books of two of the most innovative and influential poets of their generation. Meticulously edited and generously presented by Stephanie Anderson and Kristen Tapson, the material here illuminates the epistolary and diaristic forms that Mayer and Coolidge were also exploring in their poetry.'--Craig Dworkin, author of Radium of the Word: A Poetics of Materiality
Stephanie Anderson is an assistant professor at Duke Kunshan University in China, where her research focuses on poetic circulation and twentieth-century poetry. Her most recent book of poetry is If You Love Error So Love Zero.
Kristen Tapson is a scholar-in-residence in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University, where she is also an instructor in Information Science + Studies. Her research focuses on experimental practices in poetry and science.
Acknowledgments
Introduction. "I Know I Mean We"
The Letters
