Barrett Watten
@thisdirect.bsky.social
Poet critic editor and publisher; professor at Wayne State University Detroit; Questions of Poetics: Language Writing and Consequences (U Iowa P, 2016); Не то: Избранные тексты/Not This: Selected Writings (Polyphem, 2024); www.barrettwatten.net.
Write up and comments on our Zone reading last Sunday in New York. I will post the Instagram link when available: bit.ly/3VCkQLg
September 27, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Write up and comments on our Zone reading last Sunday in New York. I will post the Instagram link when available: bit.ly/3VCkQLg
Zone Readings: next Sunday, September 20, at Torn Page in New York, Steve Benson and Marjorie Welish will join this author for a demonstration of ZONE as book launch, performance, narration. Reservations at Event Brite: www.eventbrite.com/e/zone-readi...
ZONE READINGS: Barrett Watten, Marjorie Welish, Steve Benson
New York City Book Launch for Barrett Watten's ZONE: correlations 1973 2021 with readings and performances at Torn Page.
www.eventbrite.com
September 12, 2026 at 6:12 PM
Zone Readings: next Sunday, September 20, at Torn Page in New York, Steve Benson and Marjorie Welish will join this author for a demonstration of ZONE as book launch, performance, narration. Reservations at Event Brite: www.eventbrite.com/e/zone-readi...
Leningrad-89 is now out in Russia; I am hoping copies will be available through Interbok in Stockholm; stay tuned.
September 11, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Leningrad-89 is now out in Russia; I am hoping copies will be available through Interbok in Stockholm; stay tuned.
Call for papers: "Asymmetrical Mimesis," due September 22. For more information, click below: bit.ly/46ggVpG
September 10, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Call for papers: "Asymmetrical Mimesis," due September 22. For more information, click below: bit.ly/46ggVpG
Mark Wallace reviews Zone. wallacethinksagain.blogspot.com/2026/08/brie...
Brief Review: Zone (correlations 1973 2021), by Barrett Watten
The poems in Zone: correlations (1973 2021) , by Barrett Watten, (Chax Press, 2025, 259 pgs.) by Barrett Watten meet at the pinnacle of at...
wallacethinksagain.blogspot.com
August 21, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Mark Wallace reviews Zone. wallacethinksagain.blogspot.com/2026/08/brie...
There is a man cut in half by a window.
August 17, 2026 at 2:23 AM
There is a man cut in half by a window.
Barrett Watten is recognized for building the editorial and communal infrastructure of Language poetry—work that established experimental writing as a rigorous mode of cultural and historical inquiry through the materiality of language itself. —Notable Persons notablepeopleproject.org/barrett_watten
Barrett Watten - Notable People
Barrett Watten is an American poet, editor, and educator associated with Language poetry, and he is widely known for linking experimental writing to rigorous poetics and cultural criticism. He teaches...
notablepeopleproject.org
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 AM
Barrett Watten is recognized for building the editorial and communal infrastructure of Language poetry—work that established experimental writing as a rigorous mode of cultural and historical inquiry through the materiality of language itself. —Notable Persons notablepeopleproject.org/barrett_watten
Cover of the just-coming-into-print translation of *Leningrad-89*, from Nosorog (Rhinoceros) in Moscow:
July 14, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Cover of the just-coming-into-print translation of *Leningrad-89*, from Nosorog (Rhinoceros) in Moscow:
For fans of performance, new music, poetry, and interdisciplinary art: the release of Carla Harryman's "Occupying Theodor W. Adorno's 'Music and New Music,'" originally performed at dOCUMENTA 13 in 2012 and newly recorded with Jon Raskin and Gino Robair. carlaharryman.bandcamp.com/album/occupy...
Occupying Theodor W.Adorno's "Music and New Music", by Carla Harryman
6 track album
carlaharryman.bandcamp.com
July 6, 2026 at 3:41 AM
For fans of performance, new music, poetry, and interdisciplinary art: the release of Carla Harryman's "Occupying Theodor W. Adorno's 'Music and New Music,'" originally performed at dOCUMENTA 13 in 2012 and newly recorded with Jon Raskin and Gino Robair. carlaharryman.bandcamp.com/album/occupy...
Entry 75: "AI Reads Leningrad." On how AI could accurately (more or less) summarize my nonnarrative introduction to the forthcoming Russian translation of Leningrad, and should we be concerned? bit.ly/43OuYlc
June 21, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Entry 75: "AI Reads Leningrad." On how AI could accurately (more or less) summarize my nonnarrative introduction to the forthcoming Russian translation of Leningrad, and should we be concerned? bit.ly/43OuYlc
I promised a write-up of the Language/Beats event, so here it is—with some embellishment as time and space permit, but only the beginning of a longer conversation. bit.ly/4fKvJms
June 13, 2026 at 7:43 PM
I promised a write-up of the Language/Beats event, so here it is—with some embellishment as time and space permit, but only the beginning of a longer conversation. bit.ly/4fKvJms
Channeling the deep 60s: "Language/Beats," a book celebration for my *Zone* and Erik Mortenson's *Allen Ginsberg in Context* (Cambridge UP): talk, reading, and discussion with audience Q&A, Third Mind Books, Ann Arbor, Thursday, June 11, 7 PM. www.facebook.com/events/13020...
June 3, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Channeling the deep 60s: "Language/Beats," a book celebration for my *Zone* and Erik Mortenson's *Allen Ginsberg in Context* (Cambridge UP): talk, reading, and discussion with audience Q&A, Third Mind Books, Ann Arbor, Thursday, June 11, 7 PM. www.facebook.com/events/13020...
In "Entry 73: Language Notes IV," I comment on the recently published volume on Language writing from Indian academia, following the lead of Vlad Feshchenko and Panos Bosnakis: bit.ly/3Q7jfe9
May 30, 2026 at 4:46 PM
In "Entry 73: Language Notes IV," I comment on the recently published volume on Language writing from Indian academia, following the lead of Vlad Feshchenko and Panos Bosnakis: bit.ly/3Q7jfe9
With the Creeley centennial (May 21), I came across this post from about a year ago, where I tied his poem "America" from a broadside published in 1969 with the recent No Kings demonstrations. So a populist Creeley emerges, suffused with self-focused irony—just what we need now! bit.ly/4247NDn
Entry 65: Hands Off America! « barrettwatten.net
bit.ly
May 24, 2026 at 2:23 PM
With the Creeley centennial (May 21), I came across this post from about a year ago, where I tied his poem "America" from a broadside published in 1969 with the recent No Kings demonstrations. So a populist Creeley emerges, suffused with self-focused irony—just what we need now! bit.ly/4247NDn
Entry 72: Zones (Paris and Berlin) documents the two performances using sampling techniques: bit.ly/42BWsKb
May 17, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Entry 72: Zones (Paris and Berlin) documents the two performances using sampling techniques: bit.ly/42BWsKb
I presented a Zone reading of 15 sections randomly sequenced over the entire volume, after which Carla read from Against Interpretation of the Heartland, her work in progress. I will post more on the reading itself and our doings in Europe, along with a link for the lecture on Lyn Hejinian.
May 17, 2026 at 10:47 AM
I presented a Zone reading of 15 sections randomly sequenced over the entire volume, after which Carla read from Against Interpretation of the Heartland, her work in progress. I will post more on the reading itself and our doings in Europe, along with a link for the lecture on Lyn Hejinian.
What followed was an improvised discussion of our transatlantic "distressed present" in which Carla and I took part, framing the reading. Magister-poet Ulf Stolterfoht then read from his German translation of the Zukofskys' Catullus, a palimpsestic text deserving close attention. . . .
May 17, 2026 at 10:46 AM
What followed was an improvised discussion of our transatlantic "distressed present" in which Carla and I took part, framing the reading. Magister-poet Ulf Stolterfoht then read from his German translation of the Zukofskys' Catullus, a palimpsestic text deserving close attention. . . .
For tactical reasons—there was a misprint in the online program, and the audience was still showing up—host Siddhartha Lokanandi gave an improvised lecture on the concept of Staatsräson and its current uses to control and/or deny cultural initiatives in Germany. . . .
May 17, 2026 at 10:45 AM
For tactical reasons—there was a misprint in the online program, and the audience was still showing up—host Siddhartha Lokanandi gave an improvised lecture on the concept of Staatsräson and its current uses to control and/or deny cultural initiatives in Germany. . . .
Back from an intense twelve days on the road, culminating in Hopscotch Reading Room's pop-up event at Laden2, a glass-enclosed space in a down-at-heels 70s commercial development in Wedding now refunctioned for cultural events. . . .
May 17, 2026 at 10:45 AM
Back from an intense twelve days on the road, culminating in Hopscotch Reading Room's pop-up event at Laden2, a glass-enclosed space in a down-at-heels 70s commercial development in Wedding now refunctioned for cultural events. . . .
In Munich, where we shortly see our former student Franziska Ruprecht - poetry that glitters at the English Gardens for lunch, under mixed skies and cool temperatures. Followed by what art the day affords at the Pinakothek, and a deep dive into Munich's special history at the Dokuzentrum.
May 8, 2026 at 9:57 AM
In Munich, where we shortly see our former student Franziska Ruprecht - poetry that glitters at the English Gardens for lunch, under mixed skies and cool temperatures. Followed by what art the day affords at the Pinakothek, and a deep dive into Munich's special history at the Dokuzentrum.
Zones/Berlin: A reading with Barrett Watten, Carla Harryman, Ulf Stolterfoht. Thursday, May 14, Laden2, 65 Brunnenstraße. Berlin, 7 PM. All are welcome. www.facebook.com/events/80148...
May 8, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Zones/Berlin: A reading with Barrett Watten, Carla Harryman, Ulf Stolterfoht. Thursday, May 14, Laden2, 65 Brunnenstraße. Berlin, 7 PM. All are welcome. www.facebook.com/events/80148...
Lectured for an hour and twenty minutes at ENS, the full monty. Images from the archive of Lyn's notebooks for Positions of the Sun were the centerpiece, framed by readings of Benjamin's "Author as Producer" and Breton's Nadja. The coda was "Avant-garde Antifascism," bringing it up to the present.
May 5, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Lectured for an hour and twenty minutes at ENS, the full monty. Images from the archive of Lyn's notebooks for Positions of the Sun were the centerpiece, framed by readings of Benjamin's "Author as Producer" and Breton's Nadja. The coda was "Avant-garde Antifascism," bringing it up to the present.
Conceptual lyrics by Cole Swenson and projectivist lyric abstraction by Suzanne Doppelt made up the bill. Connecting with audience members who go way back as far as that or new. Outside gray skies and occasional rain—but of course, it's Paris. This morning, my lecture at ENS.
May 5, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Conceptual lyrics by Cole Swenson and projectivist lyric abstraction by Suzanne Doppelt made up the bill. Connecting with audience members who go way back as far as that or new. Outside gray skies and occasional rain—but of course, it's Paris. This morning, my lecture at ENS.
Impressive poetics crowd energy and venue at Double Change last night. I read a dérive of Zone in 13 sections, with translations of three of them by Abigail Lang, who co-performed as much as read. Carla read from Scales for the Living Under Duress, with Abigail's co-performance as well.
May 5, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Impressive poetics crowd energy and venue at Double Change last night. I read a dérive of Zone in 13 sections, with translations of three of them by Abigail Lang, who co-performed as much as read. Carla read from Scales for the Living Under Duress, with Abigail's co-performance as well.