in conversation with Tonya M. Foster
Tuesday, May 18
5:30 pm Central — FREE!
Crowdcast
Join us for a conversation and reading with Charles Bernstein, to celebrate his new collection Topsy-Turvy (University of Chicago Press) —a book that speaks to our time of “covidity” in a lyrically explosive mix of comedy and melancholy that showcases the much-heralded Bernstein at his best. With a jumble of forms ranging from horoscopes and sea shanties to translations and screenplays, Topsy-Turvy captures the tenor of our times while giving readers an instruction worthy of Beckett: “Continue / on, as / before, as after.”
"Not set out to be a book about the pandemic, this rowdy collection of poems, performances and translations nevertheless speaks volumes about the upside-down world we have all found ourselves living in.”
—The Bookseller
At this special event, Bernstein will appear in conversation with fellow poet Tonya M. Foster, a meeting of the minds in our topsy-turvy world that is not to be missed. Free to attend, registration required. We hope to “see” you there!
Books can be purchased either during the event or in advance from Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis; just click the button below. Fun Fact: Any and all books you purchase via this link help support Rain Taxi’s virtual event series— thank you!
About the Presenters
Charles Bernstein is one of the most influential voices in American poetry and poetics. With Bruce Andrews he edited the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, between 1978 and 1981, laying the foundation for what came to be known as Language Poetry; he co-founded the Poetics Program at SUNY Buffalo as well as the Electronic Poetry Center; he has written libretti for five operas, and collaborated with numerous visual artists including Susan Bee, Richard Tuttle, and Amy Silliman; and he has written several books of essays that offer “brilliant instance of the confusions of contemporary social and political premises” according to the late great Robert Creeley. Bernstein's numerous collections of poetry include Republics of Reality (Sun & Moon, 2000), which gathers work published in small press volumes between 1975 and 1995; All the Whiskey in Heaven (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010), a selected poems that according to the New York Times Book Review “rigorously critiques the art of poetry itself"; and Near/Miss (University of Chicago Press, 2018), after which he was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry. A native New Yorker, he lives in Brooklyn.
Tonya M. Foster is the author of the poetry collection A Swarm of Bees in High Court (Belladonna, 2015) and the bilingual poetry chapbook La grammaire des os (joca seria, 2016), as well as coeditor of the essay collection Third Mind: Creative Writing through Visual Art (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2002). Forthcoming are a poetry chapbook, A History of the Bitch (AHOTB) (Sputnik & Fizzle), and the full-length collection Thingification (Ugly Duckling Presse). With the support of a Creative Capital Award, Foster is also developing a multimedia, multi-genre project titled Monkey Talk. Raised in New Orleans, Foster is now the George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in Poetry at San Francisco State University and a 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellow.