Poetry. Since his post-9/11 essay "The Emergency," Andrew Joron has been regarded as one of American poetry's most profound practitioners. TRANCE ARCHIVE draws on over twenty years of Joron's work, from his early science fiction poetry to his later fusion of surrealist romanticism and avant-garde materialism, into what he calls "speculative lyric." Infused with radical politics, Joron's poetry takes inspiration from chaos and complexity theory, and reflects personal associations ranging from anarchist philosopher Paul Feyerabend to surrealist mystic Philip Lamantia. The third volume in City Lights' vibrant Spotlight series, TRANCE ARCHIVE affirms Joron's place among major contemporary poets.

Author Hometown: BERKELEY, CA USA



About the author: A graduate of UC Berkeley, where he majored in Philosophy of Science, Andrew Joron is the author of five previous collections of poetry—Force Fields (1987), SCIENCE FICTION (1992), The Removes (1999), FATHOM (2003), and THE SOUND MIRROR (2008)—and THE CRY AT ZERO: Selected Prose (2007). His translations from the German include Literary Essays of Ernst Bloch (1998) and Richard Anders's The Footsteps of One Who Has Not Stepped Forth (1999). In 2004 he published NEO-SURREALISM: OR, THE SUN AT NIGHT: TRANSFORMATIONS OF SURREALISM IN AMERICAN POETRY 1966-1999. He plays Theramin in the improvisational trio Free Rein. His TRANCE ARCHIVE: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS was published by City Lights in 2010.

Reviews:
John Olson at Tillalala Chronicles
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright in The Brooklyn Rail
James Wagner at Esther Press
Steve Evans in The Nation
Brooks Lampe @ THEthe Poetry
Poetry Foundation Stack Picks Best of 2010: Michael Slosek