While I was in Scotland last summer, Sabrina MisirHiralall emailed to request an interview for the APA’s blog. It appeared online last week.
At the link is the interview, in which I discuss ocean waves, mountain biking, whisky, Natalie Diaz, Diverse Intelligences, and personal identity. https://blog.apaonline.org/2019/12/06/apa-member-interview-phillip-barron/
In June, I had the surprise honor of picking up a book award. I learned about six months before then that What Comes from a Thing was chosen by the Caribbean Philosophical Association to receive an annual award for contributions to philosophical literature.
Even more humbling than the award itself was sharing the stage with Kamau Brathwaite, Robin D.G. Kelley, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and fellow San Francisco State alum, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
Alums Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Phillip Barron win Caribbean Philosophical Awards. Congrats! https://t.co/KNKUvrJBr7 #SFSU #GatorGreat @rdunbaro @ptbarron @caribphil @sfsucw @SFSUAlumni @14Hills pic.twitter.com/7O2gDQGV1m
— SF State Arts (@SFStateLCA) January 22, 2019
By way of invocation, I read “The Problem of History” (below) as well as “Who’s Afraid of Franz Kafka,” is by Ángel Escobar.
This poem, “The Problem of History,” by @ptbarron is something else.
— Chris Heaney (@chrheaney) June 6, 2019
“we trespass in a place
“that asks not to be kept.”
Wonderful. pic.twitter.com/B6AMDF6K61
The latest in my obsession with Las Meninas is up at Aesthetics for Birds, the philosophy and art website. It’s a short piece about the enigmatic painting, restricted by design to only 100 words. The tight limit provides the kind of challenge that appeals to me as a poet and as someone who writes philosophy about art. One ought to be able to say something meaningful in so little space.
Las Meninas– https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2018/10/26/100-philosophers-100-artworks-100-words-69/
Check out all of their 100x100x100 series. One hundred works of art, written about by 100 philosophers, using only 100 words each. It’s not just paintings; there are entries on film, sculpture, poetry, conceptual art, photography, and some that defy categorization.
All 100x100x100 – https://aestheticsforbirds.com/category/100-x-100-x-100/
A favorite of mine, pulled from the long list, is Joshua Hall’s reading of Mark Strand’s poem, in which Hall sees a distillation of Simone De Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity. https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2016/11/11/100-philosophers-100-artworks-100-words-58/
Remember, remember, the Fifth of November. That is when my new book of poetry, What Comes from a Thing, will be published.
In May, I learned that a manuscript of my poetry won the Michael Rubin Book Award from Fourteen Hills Press. On Thursday, the book will be published, and it all kicks off with a reading at Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco. If you are in the Bay Area, come join us for some poetry, wine, and books. All the details of the book release party are here on the event’s Facebook page.
A few weeks ago, I saw the galleys. I think my heart skipped a little when I reached in and pulled them from the envelope. The striking artwork on the cover is “Continuity” by the painter Charles Sheeler (Tempera on Plexiglass, 1957). I am especially grateful to Sue Grinols at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for her help securing permission to use Sheeler’s piece as the cover image. Its striking lines, deep shadows, and industrial setting complement the poems, many of which embody the sounds and rhythms of factories, industrial farmlands, and ports of late modernity.
Until Thursday, you can read what the contest judge, Laura Walker, and other reviewers, Andrew Joron and Rachel Blau DuPlessis, have said about the book over on the book’s page. That’s also where I will let you know how to purchase a copy, as soon as it is available through Small Press Distribution.
Book Release Party7-8pm, Thursday, November 5 Green Apple Books on the Park 1231 9th Avenue, SF CA 94122 (415) 742-5833
I feel like I should at least start the reading in a Guy Fawkes mask.