Strangers in Paris documents a restless encountering of new English-language writing in the most mythologized literary city in the world. Is Paris now only a residual city of prescribed epiphanies? Strangers in Paris brings together a selection of remarkably original writers of fiction and poetry-including John Berger, Jorie Graham, Cole Swensen, Alice Notley, and an exciting collection of young emerging voices-who illustrate a Paris unbound, personified, Homeric, and even digressive. It is a museum of experiences and objects that is anything but iconic; the anthology establishes a new hunt for language worthy of a changing city. It is possible to find Paris in these pages, but it is just as possible to find everything else.
Introductions
Poetry Editor Megan Fernandes xiii
Prose Editor David Barnes xix
Poems & Prose
Rufo Quintavalle
Joined-up writing 25
As cities go 26
After Rimbaud 27
29/09/08 28
Jorie Graham
Dawning 29
On the virtue of a dead tree 34
Sundown 38
Kathleen Spivack
Straining 41
Monet's Path 44
Pale Light in the Luxembourg Garden 45
David Barnes
She always reads the last line first 46
this bird 57
Lisa Pasold
Ocular 58
Getting the bends at the Hotel du Petit Canard 61
Suzanne Allen
An Hour with Madame Sabatier 63
Seine Scene 65
Outside In 67
Andrea Jonsson
Yellow Rusted Truck 69
Neil Uzzell
Granddaddy 77
Dog 78
Alice Notley
Foundation 80
My City 82
Story to the river-2 84
In the truth room 86
Diary entry 88
The Beaded Horse 90
John Berger
Le Passeur/The Guide Across Frontiers 94
Eddy Belleville
Poem "It's down by the river" 99
Poem "A strawman, sweet as berries," 100
Jonathan Hamrick
Among Other Things 101
Barbara Beck
Travel: Border 109
Travel: Hospitality 110
David Eso
The Lesser-Known Miracles of Jesus Christ 111
Alberto Rigettini
Last bath in Malaga 112
When you sleep and your flower reposes 114
Jessica Malcomson
I'll neologize you, baby 115
Antonia Klimenko
Reproduction 119
Sam Langer
Poem " 'It's not much but it's all we got' " 121
Illustrated Feet 123
Judith Chriqui
Holiday 124
Jeffrey Greene
Cooking Octopus with Madame Esteves 130
Colin Mahar
When I Have the Wind in My Skull 137
Emily Dickinson Re-translations 139
Elizabeth Willis
Nocturne 141
Another Life in Green 142
The Skirt of Night 143
Megan Fernandes 144
Constellations 144
Ella 147
Red umbrellas at La Nuit Blanche 149
(Kinetics) of the pink leaf 150
Sarah Riggs
Dear Virginia 152
Dear Demeter 153
Sea Quince 154
Julie Kleinman
Young Woman in Window, Reflected 155
Mia Bailey
Sighted 164
Helen Cusack O'Keeffe
The Ehrlich Remedy for Grief 169
Sion Dayson
The Idiopath 173
Cole Swensen
Tuning Fork 181
Poem with the last line cut off in its prime 182
Cast-iron Birds 183
Danielle McShine
Grand Palais: Saint Martin and the Beggar El Greco 184
Centre Georges Pompidou: Le violoniste á la fenêtre Henri Matisse 185
Marie Davis Margaret J. Hults
A Castle for Simone 186
Marty Hiatt
Gold 189
Exchange 191
César's Le Pouce 193
Isabel Harding
Zombie Mermaid 195
Eleni Sikelianos
"It is not enough that the buds have come out…" 204
"Here we are on the Place Saint-Sulpice again…" 205
The well-tempered clavicle 206
Alexander Maksik
Set Me to Sea; Light Me on Fire with Flaming Arrows 207
An Interview Alice Notley Megan Fernandes 212
Biographies 234
A Guide to the Literary Scene in Paris 247
Overview
Strangers in Paris documents a restless encountering of new English-language writing in the most mythologized literary city in the world. Is Paris now only a residual city of prescribed epiphanies? Strangers in Paris brings together a selection of remarkably original writers of fiction and poetry-including John Berger, Jorie Graham, Cole Swensen, Alice Notley, and an exciting collection of young emerging voices-who illustrate a Paris unbound, personified, Homeric, and even digressive. It is a museum of ...