Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. African American Studies. Introduction by Juliana Spahr. Six years after Harryette Mullen and Barbara Henning first met at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, Henning proposed she do a postcard-format interview of Mullen that would allow for a "very small postcard space in which to respond...[t]he idea of cards flying through the mail & overlapping." Thus began what is now LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN, unique collaborative conversations that offer a candid look at the influences, politics, and poetics that inform Mullen's poetry. The conversation expands even further in the second set of spoken interviews that include concerns as far-ranging as the Heaven's Gate cult, Oulipian constraints such as S + 7 and lipograms, syllabic rhymes, and Aimé Césaire. In stunning detail, Mullen and Henning discuss the origins of each poem in Mullen's highly acclaimed collection Sleeping with the Dictionary. For poets and readers of poetry interested in witnessing how a brilliant, singular writer embarks on the journey of generating work to scholars researching the inception of Mullen's poems, this book informs by way of technique and vitality.

Author City: NEW YORK, NY USA

Barbara Henning is the author of three novels: THIRTY MILES TO ROSEBUD; YOU, ME, AND THE INSECTS; and Black Lace. Her books of poetry include MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Detective Sentences, LOVE MAKES THINKING DARK, SMOKING IN THE TWILIGHT BAR, as well as numerous chapbooks and a series of photo-poem pamphlets. A collection of prose and poetry, CITIES & MEMORY, was published by Chax Press in 2010. New York City. She is a native Detroiter and has been long-time resident of New York City. Her latest work is LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN: INTERVIEWS ON SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY AND OTHER WORKS (Belladonna*, 2011), a collection of essays on and conversations with the poet Harryette Mullen.

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