Poetry. WORLD ON FIRE looks at the possibilities for existence in a world where billboards fill the sky and household names rain down with torrential indifference; there is no escape from this "indelible vanishing." The trick, Charles Bernstein shows us, is to meet the inferno with exhilarating wit and verve, humorous plays on familiar phrasing, and nifty substitutions ('It's still the same old lorry').". underneath the wry twists, the noir humor, this is in fact a deeply politicized response to the defining event of his city. As the poem "Broken English" asks five separate times in its 27 lines, What are you fighting for? It's not a joke"--Ron Silliman.

Author City: PHILADELPHIA, PA USA

Charles Bernstein (born April 4, 1950) is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) poets. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005, Bernstein was awarded the Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Brown University, and Princeton University.