Barrett Watten

For those who may be astonished, I now have an online video (actually, recording with Powerpoint) of my lecture on Walter Benjamin and Lyn Hejinian: *A Poetics of Refunctioning*. The print version of the essay is also in the works. Until then-- savoirs.ens.fr/expose.php?i...

Write up and comments on our Zone reading last Sunday in New York. I will post the Instagram link when available: bit.ly/3VCkQLg

Zone Readings: next Sunday, September 20, at Torn Page in New York, Steve Benson and Marjorie Welish will join this author for a demonstration of ZONE as book launch, performance, narration. Reservations at Event Brite: www.eventbrite.com/e/zone-readi...

Leningrad-89 is now out in Russia; I am hoping copies will be available through Interbok in Stockholm; stay tuned.

Call for papers: "Asymmetrical Mimesis," due September 22. For more information, click below: bit.ly/46ggVpG

Mark Wallace reviews Zone. wallacethinksagain.blogspot.com/2026/08/brie...

There is a man cut in half by a window.

Barrett Watten is recognized for building the editorial and communal infrastructure of Language poetry—work that established experimental writing as a rigorous mode of cultural and historical inquiry through the materiality of language itself. —Notable Persons notablepeopleproject.org/barrett_watten

Cover of the just-coming-into-print translation of *Leningrad-89*, from Nosorog (Rhinoceros) in Moscow:

For fans of performance, new music, poetry, and interdisciplinary art: the release of Carla Harryman's "Occupying Theodor W. Adorno's 'Music and New Music,'" originally performed at dOCUMENTA 13 in 2012 and newly recorded with Jon Raskin and Gino Robair. carlaharryman.bandcamp.com/album/occupy...

Entry 75: "AI Reads Leningrad." On how AI could accurately (more or less) summarize my nonnarrative introduction to the forthcoming Russian translation of Leningrad, and should we be concerned? bit.ly/43OuYlc

I promised a write-up of the Language/Beats event, so here it is—with some embellishment as time and space permit, but only the beginning of a longer conversation. bit.ly/4fKvJms

In "Entry 73: Language Notes IV," I comment on the recently published volume on Language writing from Indian academia, following the lead of Vlad Feshchenko and Panos Bosnakis: bit.ly/3Q7jfe9

Only outrage.

With the Creeley centennial (May 21), I came across this post from about a year ago, where I tied his poem "America" from a broadside published in 1969 with the recent No Kings demonstrations. So a populist Creeley emerges, suffused with self-focused irony—just what we need now! bit.ly/4247NDn

Entry 72: Zones (Paris and Berlin) documents the two performances using sampling techniques: bit.ly/42BWsKb

I presented a Zone reading of 15 sections randomly sequenced over the entire volume, after which Carla read from Against Interpretation of the Heartland, her work in progress. I will post more on the reading itself and our doings in Europe, along with a link for the lecture on Lyn Hejinian.

What followed was an improvised discussion of our transatlantic "distressed present" in which Carla and I took part, framing the reading. Magister-poet Ulf Stolterfoht then read from his German translation of the Zukofskys' Catullus, a palimpsestic text deserving close attention. . . .

For tactical reasons—there was a misprint in the online program, and the audience was still showing up—host Siddhartha Lokanandi gave an improvised lecture on the concept of Staatsräson and its current uses to control and/or deny cultural initiatives in Germany. . . .

Back from an intense twelve days on the road, culminating in Hopscotch Reading Room's pop-up event at Laden2, a glass-enclosed space in a down-at-heels 70s commercial development in Wedding now refunctioned for cultural events. . . .

In Munich, where we shortly see our former student Franziska Ruprecht - poetry that glitters at the English Gardens for lunch, under mixed skies and cool temperatures. Followed by what art the day affords at the Pinakothek, and a deep dive into Munich's special history at the Dokuzentrum.

Zones/Berlin: A reading with Barrett Watten, Carla Harryman, Ulf Stolterfoht. Thursday, May 14, Laden2, 65 Brunnenstraße. Berlin, 7 PM. All are welcome. www.facebook.com/events/80148...

Lectured for an hour and twenty minutes at ENS, the full monty. Images from the archive of Lyn's notebooks for Positions of the Sun were the centerpiece, framed by readings of Benjamin's "Author as Producer" and Breton's Nadja. The coda was "Avant-garde Antifascism," bringing it up to the present.

Conceptual lyrics by Cole Swenson and projectivist lyric abstraction by Suzanne Doppelt made up the bill. Connecting with audience members who go way back as far as that or new. Outside gray skies and occasional rain—but of course, it's Paris. This morning, my lecture at ENS.

Impressive poetics crowd energy and venue at Double Change last night. I read a dérive of Zone in 13 sections, with translations of three of them by Abigail Lang, who co-performed as much as read. Carla read from Scales for the Living Under Duress, with Abigail's co-performance as well.

Event page for reading at Double Change, Paris: Suzanne Doppelt, Carla Harryman, Cole Swenson, Barrett Watten www.facebook.com/events/23853...

A piece in memory of my mother, born precisely one hundred years ago on this day. bit.ly/4tZ4WGR

The newly translated edition of *Leningrad: American Poets in the Soviet Union*, now retitled *Leningrad-89: Американские поэты в остраненной стране* (American Poets in a Strange Land) is coming out in Moscow. That and one other thing would be my heart's content. gorky.media/context/disk...

Important and timely, as I am hoping for improvements to my Wiki entry—which was ruthlessly hacked—by human means.

BW and CH returning to California. Photo: Stephen Ratcliffe.

Entry 70, "Performing the Zone," on making the text for the reading at Gray Loft Gallery: bit.ly/4dsEZKz

Gray Loft Gallery's publicity for our March 15 event: www.facebook.com/GrayLoft/pos...

Clarification for our event in Oakland, March 15: Gray Loft Gallery is collaborating with The Orchard Galleries on 25 ; thus the 25th Street address is correct! Gray Loft Gallery @ The Orchard / Galleries on 25 489 25th Street, Oakland, CA Sunday, March 15, 4:00–6:00 PM Publicity: bit.ly/4b4z9MR

Announcing: Texts/Worlds: Readings by Stephen Ratcliffe and Barrett Watten, with “Demos: Gertrude Stein’s Do Let Us Go Away,” a performance by Carla Harryman and Jon Raskin Gray Loft Gallery @ The Orchard / Galleries on 25 489 25th Street, Oakland, CA Sunday, March 15, 4:00–6:00 PM

ACLA line-up: www.acla.org/conference/s...

Quite wonderful.

"Avant-Garde Poetics of the Zone" uploaded and sent to EAM.

As it keeps getting worse over here, I continue to work on organizing a session on transpositions of the avant-garde, definitively out of the country, in Stockholm September 2-4. See: bit.ly/45dSPvK

Call for papers for EAM Stockholm: "Avant-Garde Poetics of the Zone." Hoping for a wide array of topics to make the sessions a kind of "interzone" in their own right. Deadline: January 30. bit.ly/45dSPvK

It appears that none of the MLA "Just in Time" sessions appear in the print catalogue. Thus, if you are going to MLA or checking out what is being presented, use the online listings. Here is the link for Sunday January; we are on at 8:30: mla.confex.com/mla/2026/mee...

MLA program is out with our Just-in-Time session "Twentieth-First-Century Jackson Mac Low" NOT LISTED! Here is a link and a screen capture of the online program; please pass the word. Time and place are Sunday, January 11, 8:30–9:45 AM, MTCC 714A, Toronto. mla.confex.com/mla/2026/mee...

My poem "Media Literacy" and photos from No Kings, April 2025, up at Chant de la Sirene Journal. www.chantdelasirenejournal.com/barrett-watt...

Steve Benson reading for Anti-Tyranny. Check out the Chant de la Sirene Journal itssue itself in the link: www.chantdelasirenejournal.com/issue-5-onty....

Zone: correlations (1973 2021) event page: 20% off from Chax Press through December. www.facebook.com/events/16639...

Balzac in Paris.

Simone Fattal recommends Zone.