Description
Poetry. WELL WELL REALITY is a collection of poems written in collaboration by Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop over a number of years. The distinct voices of these two momentously prolific poets merge to create a new, lyric voice: a vast, plural assemblage of name, gender, and language.
"When Rosmarie Waldrop writes poetry, when she writes poems, she writes her poems: the poems, the poetry of Rosmarie Waldrop. When Keith Waldrop writes poetry, when he writes poems, he writes his poems: the poems, the poetry of Keith Waldrop. But when Rosmarie and Keith, when Keith and Rosmarie write poems together, whose poems are those poems? They are the poems of a third poet, whose name and gender and origin and language we do not know. But what we do see, and hear, are the poems."—Jacques Roubaud
Author Bio
Keith Waldrop was born in Kansas and served in the United States military. He studied at Aix-Marseille and Michigan Universities, earning a PhD in Comparative Literature in 1964. His first book of poetry, A Windmill Near Calvary (University of Michigan, 1968), was nominated for a National Book Award. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently The Not Forever [Inventions] (Omnidawn 2013). Waldrop has received an award from the Fund for Poetry, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Berlin Artists Program of the DAAD, and a Medal from the French government with Rank of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters. He currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he teaches at Brown University, and has served as co-editor of Burning Deck Press, with his wife Rosmarie Waldrop, since 1968.
In 1935, Rosmarie Waldrop was born in Kitzingen am Main, Germany, where she studied literature and musicology at the University of Würzburg and the University of Freiburg. In the late 1950s, Waldrop immigrated to America where she received a PhD from the University of Michigan and started Burning Deck Magazine with her husband, Keith Waldrop. The magazine eventually grew into Burning Deck Press, which continues to publish contemporary poetry in the U.S. Waldrop's work as a translator has played a vital role in her life as a poet; she has published more than 20 translations in German and French, in addition to over 20 titles of poetry, prose, and essays she has authored. In 1993, the French government named Waldrop "Chevalier des Arts et des lettres." Other honors include awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fund for Poetry, and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, among others. Waldrop has taught at Wesleyan, Tufts, and Brown University. She currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Author City: USA