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A Question Mark Above Professional Verse Culture
An anonymous commenter replies to my previous post regarding the suppression of Kent Johnson’s A Question Mark Above the Sun: “kent’s “case” is utterly uncorroborated. and kent is known for hoaxes. no one believes that he’s been threatened (for good reason), which is why you don’t see “big guns” commenting on it.” I admit that I haven’t seen a copy of the letter threatening legal action, which was sent not to Kent but to his publisher, Richard Owens, of Punch Press. Perhaps he will release it.Read More
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Kent Johnson and the Pros from Dover
I’ve already posted a number of times about Kent Johnson’s A Question Mark above the Sun: Documents on the Mystery Surrounding a Famous Poem “by” Frank O’Hara (see all my posts dealing with Kent here). I haven’t gotten my act together to write intelligently about his book itself, though I will say—in the way of a news broadcast teaser—that it’s a remarkable book that has been overlooked even by those who have discussed it, because there’s a good deal more to it than the O’Hara-Koch controversy.Read More
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Juggernaut
The juggernaut of WTF? reactions to the threatened prepublication lawsuit against the publisher of Kent Johnson’s all-but-in-the-mail book A Question Mark above the Sun: Documents on the Mystery Surrounding a Famous Poem “by” Frank O’Hara rolls on. Richard D. Allen addresses it here, as does the proprietor of Habenicht Press here. My favorite, though, is the commentary by Mark Scroggins (here), who summons no less a witness against Knopf & Friends than John Milton—specifically citing his pamphlet against prepublication censorship, Areopagitica.Read More
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From the Eye of the Kent Johnson Storm
Doubtless a stack of otherKnopf titles you will notbe allowed to comment onfreely Actually, not the eye, but the expanding tentacles of it. See Edmond Caldwell’s commentary here (love the oppressive helicopter image) and here. John Latta, in a nota bene squib at the end of this post on his blog today, unholsters the correct word for the tactics of Knopf et.Read More
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Damn the Caesars
Un-Effing-Believable! So now anyone who speculates on the genesis of a poem may find himself or herself on the wrong end of a lawsuit? Ridiculous. I’m with Michael Hansen, just waiting for “the lovely limited edition heading my way in the next few weeks,” coming from Richard Owens of Punch Press, who publishes a magazine called Damn the Caesars.Read More
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A Stray Thought
I was reading Kent Johnson’s post on John Latta’s Isola di Rifiuti blog this morning when a stray thought zapped flylike through a small tear in the screen of my concentration. The post continues a debate between Johnson and Tony Towle over a famous poem ascribed to Frank O’Hara, but which Johnson speculates may in fact have been an imitation of O’Hara written in homage to the deceased poet by his friend Kenneth Koch.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
