Category Archives: French poetry

Harry Mathews (1930-2017) and the New York School of Poets

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Andrew Epstein

Very sad news for lovers of the New York School and contemporary literature: the novelist and poet Harry Mathews passed away this week at the age of 86.  Mathews is best-known as an experimental fiction writer who was one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Barbara Guest, French poetry, Harry Mathews, In Memoriam, James Schuyler, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Locus Solus, Raymond Roussel, Uncategorized, William S. Burroughs | 1 Comment

John Ashbery’s First Love and Rimbaud

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Andrew Epstein

            In a new interview at the Brooklyn Rail with Jarrett Earnest, John Ashbery speaks candidly about an early, formative experience that I don’t recall seeing him ever mention before. When Jarrett says “a lot of people … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Rimbaud, French poetry, Influences on the NY School, Interview, John Ashbery, Translation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hilton Als on John Ashbery’s Rimbaud

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Andrew Epstein

In the New Yorker, Hilton Als reviews a new production called “Rimbaud in New York,” which is based on John Ashbery’s translation of Arthur Rimbaud’s great collection of prose poems, Illuminations.  As Als explains: Working from Ashbery’s translation of Rimbaud, the Civilians, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Rimbaud, French poetry, Influences on the NY School, John Ashbery, Theater / Plays, Translation | Leave a comment

Resurrecting Raymond Roussel, the “Proust of Dreams”

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Andrew Epstein

In the New York Times, Holland Cotter reviews the debut exhibit at the new Galerie Buchholz in New York which is “giving us something wonderful that we haven’t had before: a retrospective of the French writer Raymond Roussel (1877-1933).”  The brilliant and bizarre Roussel, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art Exhibit, French poetry, Harry Mathews, Influences on the NY School, John Ashbery, Locus Solus, Raymond Roussel | Leave a comment

David Lehman’s new translation of Apollinaire’s “Zone”

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Andrew Epstein

Among the most important influences in any account of the New York School’s lineage must be the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and perhaps no single Apollinaire poem is as important as his great, landmark 1913 poem “Zone.” There have been many excellent translations of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Aime Cesaire, Blaise Cendars, Charles Baudelaire, David Lehman, French poetry, Giorgio di Chirico, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, Poems, Samuel Beckett, Translation | Leave a comment

It is Poems by Pierre Reverdy

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Andrew Epstein

It’s exciting to see that the current issue of Poetry magazine (the first with new editor Don Share at the helm) features four poems by the great French poet Pierre Reverdy (1889-1960).  Closely tied to other “Cubist” poets like Guillaume Apollinaire and … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Berkson, Books, Frank O'Hara, French poetry, Influences on the NY School, John Ashbery, Pierre Reverdy, Translation | 1 Comment

Coming Soon: Ashbery’s Collected French Translations

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Andrew Epstein

Exciting news on the Ashbery front: a two-volume collection of Ashbery’s wide-ranging French translations will be published in 2014, edited by Rosanne Wasserman and Eugene Richie.  The first book will collect Ashbery’s wonderful poetry translations, including his celebrated renderings of … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, French poetry, John Ashbery, Pierre Reverdy, Raymond Roussel, Translation | Leave a comment