Inspired by the Beats, Black Mountain, and the New York School, Lisa
Jarnot emerged in the 1990s as one of the foremost poets of the
post-Language avant-garde. Joie de Vivre draws on twenty years of work,
from the bold fragmentation of her mixed media debut, Some Other Kind of
Mission, to the experimental lyricism of her recent Night Scenes.
Following the poet's evolution through her engagements with form and
music, Joie de Vivre showcases Jarnot's restless virtuosity and
relentless curiosity. The archaic, the surreal, the pastoral, the
political--no register of language proves too recalcitrant for her
expansive sense of song.
About the Author:
Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1967, Lisa Jarnot studied with Robert
Creeley at SUNY Buffalo and later earned an MFA at Brown University. The
author of four full-length poetry collections and the former editor of
the Poetry Project Newsletter, she has also just published Robert
Duncan: The Ambassador From Venus (University of California Press,
2012), the definitive biography of the San Francisco poet. Since the
mid-1990s, she has lived in New York City.