Volume 39, Issue 2
FRONT COVER: Patrick Warner
JAMES BALDWIN AND ALLEN GINSBERG
AT THE ALBION BOOKSHOP, AMHERST, MA 1986
PHOTOGRAPH
Table of Contents
Indian April (in memory of Allen Ginsberg), Poetry by Meena Alexander
A TRIBUTE TO ALLEN GINSBERG:
The King of May: An Update, Non-Fiction by Andrew Lass
The King of May: A Conversation Between Allen Ginsberg and Andrew Lass, Non-Fiction by Andrew Lass
Kral Majales, Poetry by Allen Ginsberg
Document: Final Report on the activities of the American poet Allen Ginsberg and his deportation from Czechoslovakia, Non-Fiction by Allen Ginsberg
Photographs of Allen Ginsberg: Prague 1965 and Amherst 1986; Stills from King of May, a documentary film, Prague 1965
Responses and Documents: Fanny Howe; Naomi Shihab Nye; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Geoff Rips; Bill Berkson; Hayden Carruth; Dara Wier; Eileen Myles
Bridal Song, Poetry by Louis Ginsberg
Talking About Poems with Robert Frost, Non-Fiction by William O’Donnell
The Next-To-Last Supper, Poetry by Edward Kleinschmidt
Giselle; Giving Head, Poetry by Dzvinia Orlowsky
Referred Pain, Poetry by Robin Morgan
The New Age, Poetry by Janet Kaplan
Morning Walk Meditation, Poetry by Marion Bethel
Goethe in Kentucky; Melancholy Baby, Poetry by Baron Wormser
Democracy and the Poet: Walt Whitman and E.A. Robinson, Non-Fiction by Alan Trachtenberg
Alfalfa, Poetry by Kinereth Gensler
Grief, Poetry by Shreerekha Pillai
The Growth of Appetite; The Vegetarian, Poetry by Richard Frost
Subjunctive Monologue; Upside Down, Poetry by Holly Iglesias
Hollywood Comes to Mexico City, Poetry by Bill Tremblay
Revery: A Syllabus of Errors, Poetry by Steve Orlen
Fiesolé Night-Piece; Intermediate Trail: Maine, Poetry by Edward Pols
Untitled; Untitled; Love Letter; County, Poetry by Katayoon Zandvakili
Contributors
Born in India, Meena Alexander lives in Manhattan where she is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hunter College and CUNY. Her most recent novel is Manhattan Music.
Bill Berkson is a poet, art critic and professor of Art History at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Marion Bethel‘s collection of poetry, Guanahane, My Love, won the Casa de Las Americas Award in 1994. A native of the Bahamas, she is currently a fellow at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College.
Poet Hayden Carruth wrote the poem for Allen Ginsberg reprinted in this issue twenty-five or thirty years ago.
The poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti lives and writes in San Francisco.
Richard Frost‘s third book of poetry, Neighbor Blood, was published in 1996 by Sarabande. He currently teaches at SUNY Oneonta and is a working jazz drummer.
A resident of Massachusetts, Kinereth Gensler‘s most recent book is Journey Fruit: Poems and a Memoir. She teaches at the Radcliffe Seminars
Louis Ginsberg, father of Allen Ginsberg, was a high-school teacher and later taught at Rutgers.
Fanny Howe‘s books of poetry include The Vineyard (Lost Roads) and The End (Littorol).
Holly Iglesias is co-editor with Catherine Reid of Every Woman I’ve Ever Loved: Lesbian Writers on Their Mothers. Her poems and translations have appeared in The Prose Poem, Puerto del Sol and International Quarterly.
Alice James Books will be publishing Janet Kaplan‘s first book-length collection of poetry, The Groundnote, this fall. She teaches Creative Writing at Hofstra University.
Edward Klein Schmidt‘s book of love poems, Bodysong, is forthcoming from The Heyeck Press. His poems have appeared recently in Indiana Review, Southwest Review and Southern Review.
Andrew Lass was born in New York and grew up in Prague where he studied photography and film, attended Charles University and became an active member of the Czech surrealist art group. After being expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1973, he returned to the U.S. and currently teaches social anthropology at Mount Holyoke College.
A resident of New York City, Robin Morgan has published 14 books, including five books of poems.
Eileen Myles‘s most recent book of poems is School of Fish (Black Sparrow); in 1992 she ran for President as an “openly female” write-in candidate in twenty-eight states.
Naomi Shihab Nye‘s most recent volume of poems, Fuel, came out from BOA in 1998.
William G. O’Donnell is a retired Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has published numerous essays on Robert Frost.
A teacher at the University of Arizona and Warren Wilson College, Steve Orlen was born and raised in Holyoke, MA. His most recent book is Kisses.
Dzvinia Orlowsky is a founding editor of Four Way Books and a contributing editor to Agni and The Marlboro Review. Her second book, Edge of House, is forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon next spring.
Shreerekha Pillai is an MFA candidate at Syracuse University.
A professor at Bowdoin College, Edward Pols has published six books in philosophy.
Geoff Rips is a poet and the publisher of The Texas Observer.
Alan Trachtenberg is Professor of English and American Studies at Yale and the author of numerous studies of culture and literature.
Bill Tremblay teaches poetry at Colorado State and publishes his work widely.
Dara Wier‘s sixth collection of poems, Our Master Plan, is forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon.
Baron Wormser‘s book When was published in 1997. He is a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Katayoon Zandvakili now lives in California where she is working on a novel. Her first book of poems, Deer Table Legs, is forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press.