Author Archives: Andrew Epstein

Ben Lerner’s Oblique Elegy For John Ashbery

Posted on May 28, 2020

“I find the moments of beauty and possibility opening up in John Ashbery’s work inexhaustibly beautiful,” the fiction writer and poet Ben Lerner recently said in an interview.  This is certainly not surprising – Ashbery is a fixture in virtually … Continue reading →

Posted in Barbara Guest, Ben Lerner, Fiction, Joe Brainard, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, NY School Influence, Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan | 6 Comments

Sea Wolf’s “Frank O’Hara,” a Tribute to the Poet of Indie Rock

Posted on May 12, 2020

  Indie rock’s love affair with Frank O’Hara continues apace.  As I’ve noted before on this blog, O’Hara seems to haunt the history and present of popular music, leading one observer to ask: ‘When did Frank O’Hara become the poet … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Federico Garcia Lorca, Frank O'Hara, Music, NY School Influence, Walt Whitman | Leave a comment

“Art Cooking: Frank O’Hara” (with Sarah Urist Green, John Green, Paige Lewis, and Kaveh Akbar)

Posted on February 14, 2020

It’s probably not a surprise that the work of Frank O’Hara, the author of a book called Lunch Poems, is overflowing with images of food and drink — from the “glass of papaya juice” at the end of “A Step … Continue reading →

Posted in Frank O'Hara, John Green, Kaveh Akbar, Paige Lewis, Sarah Urist Green, Video | 3 Comments

The Weather on 2/9/62: A Footnote for Frank O’Hara’s “Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed)”

Posted on February 9, 2020

On this day (February 9) in 1962, Frank O’Hara was on his way to give a poetry reading at Wagner College, with the much more famous poet Robert Lowell (who O’Hara viewed as a stuffy, mandarin rival) when he saw … Continue reading →

Posted in Frank O'Hara, Poems, Robert Lowell, visual footnote | Leave a comment

“Dear David”: Joanna Fuhrman and Elaine Equi Pay Tribute to David Shapiro

Posted on February 7, 2020

A few months ago, the poet Joanna Fuhrman wrote a lovely tribute to her friend and mentor, David Shapiro, for Fence.  As she explains, Shapiro’s poetry has meant a great deal to her for a long time (as it has … Continue reading →

Posted in David Shapiro, Elaine Equi, Joanna Fuhrman | Leave a comment

Dining Out with Douglas Crase

Posted on January 24, 2020

The poet and critic Douglas Crase published his first book of poems, The Revisionist, in 1981, to rapturous reviews.  No less than Harold Bloom, that tireless canonizer, proclaimed that “Crase has every prospect of becoming one of the strong poets … Continue reading →

Posted in Douglas Crase, Fairfield Porter, Gertrude Stein, Harold Bloom, James Merrill, James Schuyler, John Ashbery, John Hollander, John Koethe, Marianne Moore, Poems, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, William James | Leave a comment

Frank O’Hara as a Liberating Force in Garth Greenwell’s “Cleanness”

Posted on January 20, 2020

Garth Greenwell’s new book of fiction, Cleanness, has been greeted with rave reviews over the past couple of weeks.  Narrated by a middle-aged American poet living and teaching in Sofia, Bulgaria, the book reflects Greenwell’s own background as a poet … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Frank O'Hara, Garth Greenwell, NY School Influence | Leave a comment

Roundup of Recent “New York School of Poetry” News and Links (1/20/20)

Posted on January 20, 2020

Here’s the latest roundup of some recent links, new publications, and news related to the New York School of poets. (Previous roundups can be found here). — For The Rambling, literary scholar Jason Farr wrote a moving personal essay about … Continue reading →

Posted in Alice Notley, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Anne Waldman, Barbara Guest, Beck, Bill Berkson, Eileen Myles, Elaine de Kooning, Frank O'Hara, George Schneeman, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Joe Brainard, Joe LeSueur, John Ashbery, John Cage, John Giorno, John Yau, Kenneth Koch, Lorenzo Thomas, Merce Cunningham, MoMA, Nell Blaine, Peter Schjeldahl, Robert Rauschenberg, Robin Coste Lewis, Ron Padgett, Roundup, Roy Lichtenstein, Tracy K. Smith, Visual Art, Wynn Chamberlain | Leave a comment

Frank O’Hara, Zadie Smith, Sally Rooney – O’Hara’s Presence in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction

Posted on November 11, 2019

  Fiction writers from the UK and Ireland seem to be having a Frank O’Hara moment. I wrote about this trend a couple years ago, after noticing that the titles of two books by young British women — Emma Jane … Continue reading →

Posted in Andrew Sean Greer, Don DeLillo, Fiction, Frank O'Hara, NY School Influence, Zadie Smith | 1 Comment

When Frank (O’Hara) Met Marlene (Dietrich)

Posted on October 19, 2019

                          As everyone knows, Frank O’Hara was an unabashed, passionate fan of the movies — and of movie stars.  He stanned James Dean and Greta Garbo and Lana … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Gorey, Edwin Denby, Film, Frank O'Hara, Larry Rivers, Letters / Correspondence | Leave a comment