Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 6: August 16–September 15, 2020

On July 16, 2020, I took part in the fourth of ten readings around the release of the Poetics for the More-than-Human World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary (Spuyten Duyvil, forthcoming 2020), originally published as a special issue of Dispatches from the Poetry Wars edited by Mary Newell, Bernard Quetchenbach, and Sarah Nolan. Other readers are: Cara Chamberlain, Petra Kuppers, Andrew Melrose, Eléna Rivera, Arthur Sze, and Jen Web. My reading of “Dead Horse Bay” and “Blason III” starts around 29:30 in the July 16 reading .

To find more about the series, visit the Ecopoetics Anthology Facebook page.

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 2: April 15–May 15, 2020

July 1, 2020July 28, 2020 / Bradley J. Fest / Leave a comment

Coronavirus Think Pieces

Kim Stanley Robinson, “The Coronavirus Is Rewriting Our Imaginations.”

Jodi Dean, “Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism?”

Ibram X. Kendi, “We’re Still Living and Dying in the Slaveholders’ Republic.”

David Harvey, “We Need a Collective Response to the Collective Dilemma of Coronavirus.”

Richard Grusin, “Radical Mediation, COVID Masks, Revolutionary Collectivity.”

Charles Stross, “It’ll All Be Over by Christmas.”

Laurie Penny, “Productivity Is Not Working.”

Corey Robin, “Comrades.”

Masha Gessen on the present.

Continue reading →

Poetics for the More-than-Human World Readings

June 19, 2020 / Bradley J. Fest / Leave a comment

To accompany the online publication of “Poetics for the More-than-Human World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary” at Dispatches for the Poetry Wars, along with its eventual print publication by Spuyten Duyvil, the editors have organized a series of ten readings over the next few months. The first reading kicks off next week, June 25, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. EDT with Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Patricio Ferrari, Peter O’Leary, Stephanie Strickland, Harriet Tarlo, Orchid Tierney, and Edwin Torres.

On July 16, 2020 at 4:00 pm EDT I’ll be reading with Cara Chamberlain, Petra Kuppers, Jake Levine, Eléna Rivera, Arthur Sze, and Jen Web.

Find our more on the anthology’s Facebook and Eventbrite pages.

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 1: March 11–April 15, 2020

June 16, 2020August 12, 2020 / Bradley J. Fest / Leave a comment

I originally intended in late May 2020, when the spring semester was finally over and I had some time to finish “Spring 2020 Links (Pre-COVID-19),” to post one big link dump for coronavirus-related things. But the hyperarchival barrage of news over the past three months, including everything that has happened in the United States the past three weeks (combined with how little time I still have . . .), has made it clear that it would be better to divide posts into smaller, more manageable bits. So here is everything I came across from March 11-April 15, 2020. More to come soon.

Sheri Fink and Mike Baker, “‘It’s Just Everywhere Already’: How Delays in Testing Set Back the US Coronavirus Response.”

What we are seeing right now is the collapse of civic authority and public trust at what is only the beginning of what will be a protracted crisis.

— David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) March 12, 2020

The New York Times, “Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak,” “Coronavirus in the US: Latest Map and Case Count” and “Coronavirus Tips, Advice and Answers to Your New Questions.”

IHME, “COVID-19 Projections.”

Katie Zezima, Joel Achenbach, Tim Craig, and Lena H. Sun, “Coronavirus Is Shutting Down American Life as States Try to Battle Outbreak.”

Coronavirus Think Pieces (General)

Laurie Penny, “This Is Not the Apocalypse You Were Looking For.”

Naomi Klein, “Coronavirus Capitalism–and How to Beat It.”

Frank Pasquale, “Two Timelines of COVID Crisis.”

Arundhati Roy, “The Pandemic Is a Portal.”

Anne Applebaum, “The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff.”

Dan Kois, “America Is a Sham.”

Continue reading →

Spring 2020 Links (Pre-COVID-19)

May 23, 2020May 31, 2020 / Bradley J. Fest / 1 Comment

A lot of stuff was going on for me this year, both personally and professionally, so I haven’t really had a chance to post links since . . . last summer (!), nine months before the global pandemic was declared. So, to catch up: here’s links from late summer 2019–March 11, 2020 that are, by the very nature of posting them now, rather outdated/anachronistic, a window onto a world that is gone yet still all too present (and excessive), a world that most certainly wasn’t going in the direction of human flourishing and that any nostalgia for may be misplaced. . . . I hope to have “Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 1” up sometime soon(er than nine months from now . . .).

Donald G. McNeil Jr., “Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say” (February 20, 2020).

Nuclear and Environmental

Mary Hudetz, “US Official: Research Finds Uranium in Navajo Women, Babies.”

David E. Sanger and Andrew E. Kramer, “US Officials Suspect New Nuclear Missile in Explosion That Killed Seven Russians.”

Kristin George Bagdanov, “Addressing the Atomic Specter: Ginsberg’S ‘Plutonian Ode’ and America’s Nuclear Unconscious.”

Alyssa Battistoni, “Why Naomi Klein Has Been Right.”

Henry Fountain, “Climate Change Is Accelerating, Bringing World ‘Dangerously Close’ to Irreversible Change.”

Continue reading →

“Dead Horse Bay” and “Archives of Winter” in a Special Issue of Dispatches from the Poetry Wars

May 2, 2020June 10, 2020 / Bradley J. Fest / Leave a comment

I am totally humbled by the inclusion of my poems, “Dead Horse Bay” and “Archives of Winter,” in a special issue of Dispatches from the Poetry Wars: “Poetics for the More-than-Human World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary,” edited by Mary Newell, Bernard Quetchenbach, and Sarah Nolan. Other contributors include Rae Armantrout, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Jane Hirshfield, Cynthia Hogue, Angela Hume, Michael McClure, John Shoptaw, Stephanie Strickland, Harriet Tarlo, Edwin Torres, and many, many others.

The issue also includes a section of commentary, reviews, and criticism, including a review of Kristin George Bagdanov’s Fossils in the Making (2019), and essays by Lynn Keller, Hogue, Cole Swensen, and (again) many others.

Here is the press release from Dispatches:

Announcement: Release of Online Anthology

POETICS FOR THE MORE-THAN-HUMAN WORLD!

We are delighted to announce the special Ecopoetry issue of Dispatches from the Poetry Wars journal, titled “Poetics for the More-than-Human World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary,” co-edited by Mary Newell, Sarah Nolan, and Bernard Quetchenbach. The issue offers a core sample of diverse approaches to ecologically oriented poetics, representing 150 contemporary authors from a wide range of bioregions and nations. In addition to poetry, the issue features critical commentary, interviews, a preview selection of Cognitive Ecopoetics,by Sharon Lattig, and reviews of current anthologies.

In this time of planetary challenge from changes to climate and water level, atmospheric pollution, viral scourges, and threats of mass species extinction, our interconnectedness across boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, and other sociocultural labels has been underscored by our common plight. How can we bear witness to this situation, how might we harness our fear, anger, hope, wonder, in ways that will encourage a renewed commitment to live sustainably in our shared home? May this anthology offer fresh impressions of the life of this chaotic but still resplendent planet we share. May you find pleasures, surprises, insights, and inspiration, and may some of the poems resound in you and provide sustenance and energy on your own path toward living conscientiously. Visit dispatchespoetrywars.com.

UPDATE MAY 26, 2020

Spuyten Duyvil has just announced that it will be printing the anthology. Order it here.

The Hyperarchival Parallax

Bradley J. Fest

Eschatological Anxiety

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 6: August 16–September 15, 2020

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 4: June 16–July 15, 2020

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 3: May 16–June 15, 2020

Reading of “Dead Horse Bay” and “Blason III” for the Ecopoetics Reading, July 16, 2020

Poetics for the More-than-Human World Readings

Spring 2020 Links (Pre-COVID-19)

“Dead Horse Bay” and “Archives of Winter” in a Special Issue of Dispatches from the Poetry Wars