The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry

by Blake Hobby (Editor), Alessandro Porco (Editor), Joseph Bathanti (Editor)

Overview

Founded in 1933 near Asheville, North Carolina, Black Mountain College fostered experimentation and interdisciplinary learning, placing the arts, including poetry, at the heart of its curriculum. As such, the college was home to and served as inspiration for many modern and postmodern American poets. Some of them, including Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, and Edward Dorn, appeared in Donald Allen's groundbreaking New American Poetry anthology published in 1960, later becoming part of the American poetry canon. However, many from the Black Mountain College school of writers have been overlooked. The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry features over fifty poets selected with an expansive critical lens, including writers not typically seen as poets, such as composer John Cage, architect Buckminster Fuller, and visual artist Josef Albers. Many years in the making, this book paints the clearest picture of the poetry and poets of Black Mountain College yet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469641157
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/14/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416

About the Author

Blake Hobby is former executive editor of Black Mountain College Studies. Joseph Bathanti is McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University. Alessandro Porco is associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Like the experimental college whose poetic heritage it documents, this collection is a marvel, literally the best presentation of any literary phenomenon we have had in the United States. Nothing half so meticulous exists for the Beats, the New York School, the Spicer Circle, or the San Francisco Renaissance. Not just the famous names, but short-term faculty, students, affiliates, and visitors as well. This book raises the bar for everyone."—Ron Silliman, author of The Alphabet



This long-awaited Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry expands our awareness of what constitutes that seminal time and place. Here we get essential takes: Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, John Wieners, Paul Blackburn—plus others farther afield: Cage, Fuller, Goodman, Eigner, Levertov—and Josef Albers's elegant epigrams. Kudos to Editors Hobby, Porco, and Bathanti for deepening the field. Copious annotation adds to the pleasurable dive."—Vincent Katz, editor of Black Mountain College: Experiment in Art



Finally, we have the Black Mountain poets—a diverse community of potters, painters, scientists, homemakers, scholars, and prose writers—whose poems pay tribute to the unique learning community that nurtured the creative spirit of its fortunate inhabitants. Hobby, Porco, and Bathanti have opened the field and shuffled the deck. I eagerly await the new thinking that inevitably will follow."—Mary Emma Harris, author of The Arts at Black Mountain College