Poetry. Shaped by California's cultural and political landscape, WESTERN PRACTICE reflects on the rituals of artistic activity, including an obsessive scrutinizing of the founders of Los Angeles' postwar art scene, from composer Harry Partch to painter Richard Diebenkorn. Stephen Motika's debut collection draws striking parallels between geography and visionary artists' work, creating an aesthetic and emotive topos all its own.

"If twentieth century California artists established a tradition of speculative innovation, then WESTERN PRACTICE ushers visionary West Coast poetics into the twenty-first. Motika's ingenious ear renders place prosodic; his 'baroque leaps' tender a sprung rhythm that turns history into 'a theory at map's edge.' The 'mystic / gather' of this music gives Motika's ambitious projective praxis visual beauty and structural rigor. Open this book—'crawl inside & lie down against the future.'"—Brian Teare

Author City: NEW YORK, NY USA

Stephen Motika was born in Santa Monica, California. He is the editor of TIRESIAS: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LELAND HICKMAN (Nightboat & Otis Books/Seismicity, 2009) and the author of the poetry chapbook, Arrival and at Mono (Sona Books, 2007). His articles and poems have appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, BOMB, The Brooklyn Review, ELEVEN ELEVEN, The Poetry Project Newsletter, among other publications. His collaboration with artist Dianna Frid, "The Field," was on view at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 2003. A 2010-2011 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Resident, he is the program director at Poets House and the publisher of Nightboat Books. WESTERN PRACTICE (Alice James Books, 2012) is his debut collection.

Reviews and Other Links
Barbara Hoffert's Voices on the Verge @ Library Journal
Publishers Weekly