Anne Waldman Books

Anne Waldman is a literary figure that feeds off of her own inborn energy. Energy is what you think of when you think of chants. Having been raised in a tradition of chants, i find her Fast Speaking Woman Chant extremely moving. She seeks to represent all but also exhault all individuality. The book is a nice compact perfect bound book. Easily transported in your medical coat, or business pocket.

"Fast Speaking Woman" is one of the best poems I've ever read, and it captures everything that the Beats attempted (and attempt) to capture in their stream of conciousness writing. She's defining herself, but she is also defining every other woman, because we can all do what she did. She is uplifting, and fabulous! The rest of the chants are awe inspiring, especially when chanted aloud so that you can get the full expereince. If you like Allen Ginsberg, et. all, you will love Waldman. She is a true Beat woman, who does not need to define herself through the men that she associates with.

If you loved the previous entries in the Bowery Books Poetry Series as much as I did, then you've probably been anxiously awaiting this new anthology. I can tell you that it does not disappoint! This is a really interesting read with work that spans all emotions. Several poems have been read and re-read many times already! I especially liked the pieces from Sarah Herrington and Mary Reilly. I can definitely recommend this to any lover of poetry.

I've been having an ongoing flirtation with the "Beat Generation" this year, having read Diane Di Prima, Anne Waldman, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, among others. When I stumbled across this set of audio CD's, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. To hear these giants of their generation reading their own works was a dream come true.

The title "First Thought, Best Thought" was the phrase that poet Allen Ginsberg used to describe spontaneous and fearless writing--a way of "telling the truth" that arises from naked and authentic experience.

Here's the gist of the CD's:

*William S. Burroughs teaching his breakthrough methods for generating fresh writing--including "the cut-up method," chance operations, and dreamwork.


*Diane di Prima on how to survive as an artist: preserving your sensibility, creating a supportive artistic community, getting published, self-publishing, and much more.


*Allen Ginsberg exploring every stage of poetic activity--from inspiration, to composition, to revision, to performing your poetry in public.


*Anne Waldman on the elements of the poet's craft--from the raw material of the words themselves to the many aspects of the poem in performance.

I must say that my own writing practice (after listening to these CD's a few times) has been profoundly enriched for the better. I've decided to publish my own poetry and I'm experimenting with the cut-up method suggested by Burroughs. It's a blast and funny has hell at times.

If you need a giant dose of inspiration and/or encouragement for your writing, then by all means, BUY THIS COLLECTION!

Of course, the Universe being a giant cross-reference, these authors led me to other great books: "Women of the Beat Generation" by Brenda Knight was an eye-opening read about the women of that generation.

Here's a blurb from that book: "In many ways, women of the Beat were cut from the same cloth as the men: fearless, angry, high risk, too smart, restless, highly irregular. They took chances, make mistakes, made poetry, made love, made history. Women of the Beat weren't afraid to get dirty. They were compassionate, careless, charismatic, marching to a different drummer, out of step. Muses who birthed a poetry so raw and new and full of power that it changed the world. Writers whose words weave spells, whose stories bind, whose vision blinds. Artists for whom curing the disease of art kills."

I'd also recommend, "Fast Speaking Woman" by Anne Waldman and "Memoirs of a Beatnik" by Diane Di Prima. Ms. Waldman got her inspiration for the title poem from the Shaman, Maria Sabina. So, you MUST read about Maria Sabina in this amazing book, "Maria Sabina: Her Life and Chants" by Alvaro Estrada. Here's a taste of one of her chants:

Because I can swim in the immense
Because I can swim in all forms
Because I am the launch woman
Because I am the sacred opposum
Because I am the Lord opposum

I am the woman Book that is beneath the water, says
I am the woman of the populous town, says
I am the shepherdess who is beneath the water, says
I am the woman who shepherds the immense, says
I am a shepherdess and I come with my shepherd, says

Because everything has its origin
And I come going from place to place from the origin . . .

(Alvaro Estrada, "Maria Sabina: her Life and Chants")

In The Room Of Never Grieve: New And Selected Poems 1985-2003 collects and showcases the works of American poet and educator Anne Waldman, offers the reader her highly recommended verse enhanced with notes, commentary, and personal reminiscences. An accompanying audio CD containing live performances of selected classic verses emphasizing the human condition, dialogue, everyday life and the craving to reach beyond the mundane. Crack in the World: I see the crack in the world / My body thinks it, sees the gaping crack in the world / My body does it for me to see / Blood flowing through the body crack / Body, send your rivers to the moon...

To Whom It May Concern: Buy this book! Or borrow it your literary neighbor, or steal it from the library; anything, just get you hands on it. Out of This World is a comprehensive lexicon of of the life of the infamous St. Mark's in the Bowery Poetry Project. From Ginsberg to Ashberry, from O'Hara to St. Francis, from the down and dirty free verse of Paul Beatty and Jim Carroll to the the luminous prose of Mary Montenegro, this book is finger lickin' good. While it is dissappointing at times not to have more that one or two pieces by each poet, it gives you a scope that few works do. Elegantly edited and sequenced by Anne Waldman, the project's long-time director, Out of This World is a five-pound gem worth dodging library security or the wait for an out of print copy. Dig it.

This book reminds me of Sei Shonagon, but the cast of characters is often well-known Beat writers. Kyger was married to Beat saint Gary Snyder at the time, but she is iconoclastic in regards to presenting him here. The arc of the book is their love story -- beginning with a shy and rather impressed Kyger and ending with a rather loud and irreverent Kyger. Early on she worships Snyder, but then he knocks her down and splits her head open on a wood table when she refuses to do the dishes. He is surly throughout the book, and given to bad moods, and kicks her at least twice.

Kyger gets it all down.

Beat saint Allen Ginsberg grabs his food at the communal dining hour and shoves his face full without waiting for others to be served. Orlovsky is shoving drugs in his face every moment that he can.

This is a funny book that knocks out stereotypes left and right. In one or two sentences she undoes the career of Paul Blackburn, for instance. And all the while she is musing on the possibility of a female literature, and what it might consist of -- something for which she had no clear legacy in American but the Japanese writers of the Heian period such as Sei Shonagon appear to have given her the inspiration needed.

This is a very good book for those who are tired of the Beats self-sanctification, and want a bit of humorous and unsparing insight into their world.

It's your duty as a poet to speak the world into a new existence! Hurray! This anthology is packed with inspiring essays and fueled with Ms. Waldmans passion for "keeping the world safe for poetry". Be inspired!

The collaborative compilation and editorial organization of Anne Waldman (poet, performer, cultural activist, and Distinguished Professor of Poetics at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) and Lisa Birman (Australian poet and co-founder of "Movie Star Press, and Co-Director of Naropa University's Summer Writing Program), Civil Disobediences: Poetics And Politics In Action offers a series of essays, lectures, and teaching materials contributed by leading contemporary poets and scholars. Within the pages of this unique volume are writings by Alice Notley, Robert Creeley, Samuel R. Delany, and many others, exploring the craft of poetry and the history of poetic/political action both here and abroad. Perhaps one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking assertions is that "poetry is news that stays news". Civil Disobediences is strongly recommended to the attention of anyone who appreciates informed and informative discourse that has as its parameters the politics of poetry and the poetry of politics.

This book was recommended to me when I worked for William Burroughs Communication. Oh, how I could relate, having been around artist junkies and wandering poets and moody, irrational alcoholic geniuses - and not being recognized as one myself (although much healthier by this time of my life). These women write about the life of US, the women who were also in those circles of creative insanity, putting up with violent, lazy, thieving, cheating men who said they loved us. Throughout history the lives of women in powerful movements wre hidden. They paid the rent, made sure there was food, made carbon copies of their lovers' work. But they also WROTE, beautifully, from the point of view of women who love their lovers, love their friends, and love finding their strength. These women grow as they age, becoming more compassionate and critical. After reading this, I was led to Jan Kerouac, Joyce Johnson, Diane di Prima, etc. - voices who wrote like mine, affirmed my life story. I read so much of the male Beats writing, and loved it, but didn't feel I was really in the story. Who were the women? They were us.

Denise Levertov never was, and never will be, a so-called "Beat" writer: she could actually write. (Which means she knew that the most basic rule of writing is: rewriting.) Any more than she will be diminished and narrowed by the so-called "feminists" who insist she was a "woman writer" therefore only suitable for women readers (to which ideological morons she delivered swift kicks to the teeth).

And no amount of effort to drag her, kicking and screaming, into the "Beat" "canon," will succeed, or succeed in giving that "canon" a "class" and credibility it mostly didn't earn and doesn't deserve. Kerouac might have been able to write -- if, that is, he'd tried the language- and reader-respecting work of rewriting. But nothing will cure Ginsberg of the reality that he was 99 per cent vapid masturbatory windbag.

Any interested in the history of the beat era must have WOMEN OF THE BEAT GENERATION: THE WRITERS, ARTISTS AND MUSES AT THE HEART OF A REVOLUTION. Much has been written on famous beat men but comparatively little on the women who also made their mark during the time: long overdue but better late than never is an exploration of the histories of these women, from Barbara Guest and Diane DiPrima to Jan Kerouac and Anne Waldman. A literary and social history which should not be missed.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Yes, there were women writing as well, and doing all the other cool stuff at the time. Many of them are still writing or continued to write long after their affair with the "beat" generation. This book is a great introduction to these writers. It's very informative, has just enough of the good gossip and lots of really great writing.

For a group that is now remembered as a progressive voice in the ultra-conformist wilderness of the 1950s, the Beats were a surprisingly chauvinistic bunch of guys, all too ordinary for their time. That unfortunate fact helps explain the relative obscurity of most of the women who ran with, influenced and, in some cases, loved them. (You probably know that William S. Burroughs accidentally murdered his common-law wife while playing William Tell, but do you know her name?) This wonderful volume goes a long way towards correcting that oversight. Featuring previously unpublished letters, rare pictures and - best of all - a generous sampling of creative works, it's a near-perfect survey of the Beats' female contemporaries, lovers and even a few of their precursors.

Although most of the women profiled here published at least one work in their own right at some point, many of those are not currently in print anywhere else. Additionally, some of the poems and stories here are previously unpublished, and in the case of many of the wives and lovers (referred to as "The Muses"), the works presented here are by far the most intimate look at their lives published thus far. In short, there's something here for everyone: a good starting point for newcomers to the Beats as well as a good supplementary piece for even the most serious students of women's literature.

Ann is top..as is Gerald Nicosia (Memory Babe) see collection...by Stones' Magazine..pages 70-75- Gerry is rated Top JK bio...& is hosted at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac,...

Did you know that Burroughs was straight? Or Ginsburg? Yep -- not a word about their homoerotic interests, either in the poems selected (or oddly slashed up) or in the intros. We do find out that Orlovsky was Ginsburg's "companion" -- is this the year 1928? The editor evidently thinks so. Instead of providing an honest introduction to Beat work, she inflicts salacious, incredibly obscure pieces upon us, like a 6-page rant from Michael McClure about (and I quote) "woman woman woman woman woman woman woman." This anthology tells us a lot about the editor's personal idiosyncracies, but it is not a balanced portrayal of the Beats.

The introductions were a little sparse and a lot of the homosexuality was considerably downplayed, Ann's book does give language poetry and female Beats like Diane DiPrima much more space than they get in other Beat anthologies. In fact, much of the "man's world" that is Beat literature is balanced in this anthology. I admit, sometimes, when it comes to overviews of the American avant-garde, one is trading one whitewash for another.

Anyway, this anthology devotes time to writers other than the big three of the Beats. Selections from Joanne Kyger, John Wieners, Diane Di Prima, and Lenore Kandel make this anthology well-worth its price despite its flaws.

Ann,# 1 biographer-with Gerald Nicosia, did the basics, then cam Rolling Stones' "Book of the Beat'..'99..both-are inseparable pieces to the "Beat" heart..a distillation that cannot be surpassed..in this Century" Lowell Celebrates Keoauc, 12th events...