American Poetry After 1975: Editor's Note

Abstract

I have had the pleasure of editing two previous special issues of boundary 2—“43 Poets (1984)” (vol. 14, no. 1/2 [Autumn 1985/Winter 1986]), and “99 Poets/1999: An International Poetics Symposium” (vol. 26, no. 1 [Spring 1999])—as well as a cluster, “Swedish Poetry and Poetics: A Gathering” (vol. 29, no. 1 [Spring 2002]). A “dossier” on my work (poems and interviews) was published in the fall issue of 1996 (vol. 23, no. 3). For this special issue on American poetry after 1975, I have gathered work from a set of literary scholars who are redefining the field, focusing mostly on those who have published their first book in the last decade. I have also included a few older hands along with a few poems. My focus here is on new directions, an old-time cliche but I trust justified by the works presented. While many of the essays are traditional in form, I encouraged all the participants to move beyond the constraints of professional writing if and as possible or necessary. For this reason, I have asked that the original style of each essay be left as is and that the documentation formats not be standardized. But then I have always had a weakness for eccentricity. In this issue, Jennifer Scappettone writes on ambience and “junk