Anna Kelly 7/6/21 Anna Kelly 7/6/21

Correspondence with James Berger

I loved Kent's ability to use the poetic art form to criticize not poetry itself, but the popular trends that muddy and obscure poetry by forcing all of us to dig through the garbage to find actual substance.

William Freind 7/6/21 William Freind 7/6/21

Discipline and Poetics: On Kent Johnson’s “From One Hundred Poems from the Chinese”

“From One Hundred Poems from the Chinese” doesn’t aspire to the brevity and concision of classical Chinese poetry. They’re relatively long, jumping between themes and styles, and always very funny.

Peter Boyle 7/6/21 Peter Boyle 7/6/21

Three ways of writing American poetry that really bug me

Robert Hogg 7/6/21 Robert Hogg 7/6/21

Guy Fawkes Day in The Poetry World

Not since Ed Dorn have we had such scathing satire on the state of the arts, and not since Alexander Pope, I don’t think, have we had someone willing to take on the establishment with such vigor — and in rhymed couplets, yet!

Boyd Nielson 7/6/21 Boyd Nielson 7/6/21

On Because of Poetry…

Johnson’s work is distinguishable for its international breadth and for its pugilism.

MTC Cronin 7/6/21 MTC Cronin 7/6/21

Because of Kent Johnson

He listens to the life inside life for the life outside life.

Ruth Lepson 7/6/21 Ruth Lepson 7/6/21

Though I was often confused about the heated arguments

He has a cause and he has devoted himself to it. I can’t say God bless him but I can say Poets bless him.

John Bradley 7/6/21 John Bradley 7/6/21

Because of Poetry

Giorgia Pavlidou 7/6/21 Giorgia Pavlidou 7/6/21

Commentary on Kent Johnson’s “Because of Poetry I Have a Really Big House”

David Hadbawnik 7/6/21 David Hadbawnik 7/6/21

“All Because of Poetry”: The Sincerity of Kent Johnson’s Satire

“It sucks being a famous poet. / All your time gets taken up on / the phone or in answering emails / from people looking for a blurb, / and stuff. It’s totally tiresome!”

Brian Richards 7/6/21 Brian Richards 7/6/21

On Kent Johnson

Echoes from so many sources, augmenting frequencies, ostensibly bitching about insufficient personal rewards — but more fundamentally, questioning the Peter Principle that underlies curatorial commodification.

Michael Boughn 7/6/21 Michael Boughn 7/6/21

Kent Johnson’s Really Big House on Walden Pond

Kent Johnson 2/4/21 Kent Johnson 2/4/21

Why Another Aeneid? Because We Don’t Need One

“I do want to be aware of those tensions (between academy and creativity, between ‘translation’ and ‘adaptation’), and find a way to play off them without being tortured or paralyzed by them or pulled too far in one direction or the other.”