Carcanet Press - John Ashbery

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John Ashbery is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, most recently Quick Question (January 2013). He is the recipient of many honours, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and a MacArthur ‘genius’ award. Born in Rochester, New York, he was educated at Harvard and Columbia. In 1955 he went to France on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent much of the next decade there, including several years as art critic of the International Herald Tribune and Paris correspondent of ArtNews magazine. Ashbery’s research on the life and works of Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) resulted in several groundbreaking articles, as well as the appearance in print of the first unpublished work of the writer to come to light after his death. His translations include works by Roussel, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, Stéphane Mallarmé, André Breton, Paul Eluard and many others. His 2008 translation of Pierre Martory’s The Landscapist was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation. The French government has appointed Ashbery as both Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Officier of the Légion d’Honneur.

John Ashbery has a page on the Poetry Archive website, where you can listen to recordings of his poetry and access other useful resources. Click here.

Praise for John Ashbery 'Praised as a magical genius, cursed as an obscure joker, John Ashbery writes poetry like no one else.' The Independent 'Great poetry, as T.S. Eliot said, can communicate before it is understood: Ashbery communicates in a way that both pays homage to language and transcends it at the same time.' The Guardian 'John Ashbery's Collected Poems 1956-1987, edited by Mark Ford (Carcanet), was a book I found inexhaustible. Possibly the greatest living English-speaking poet and one of the most prolific, Ashbery takes language to its limits, so that words serve as pointers to shifting experiences that elude description. Containing his masterpiece 'Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror', one of the most penetrating 20th-century meditations on what it means to be human, this collection succeeded in stirring my thoughts as well as delighting me.' John Gray The Guardian Books Of The Year 2010 'The language of [John Ashbery's] books is informed by his roving enthusiasms for particular composers. His tastes are both eclectic and out-of-the-way.'- Michael Glover, 'A blue rinse for the language,' The Independent, 13 November, 1999 'In his seventies John Ashbery offers a sprightly and energetic alternative. Instead of being sluggish he demands that the self must be even more alert, more vigilant, more attentive to the world around it, not indifferent to and weary of it. Alert, vigilant, attentive ... Wakefulness, the brilliantly evocative title of Ashbery's collection.' - Stephen Matterson, 'The Capacious Art of Poetry,' Poetry Ireland Review 62, 114 'Harold Bloom regards [John Ashbery] as something akin to a genius...' - Michael Glover, 'The poet as frustrated composer,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Independent, 14 August, 1998 '...Ashbery is still exuberantly dedicated to the truthful rendering of experience as a flow of sensations that defy interpretation. Consciousness is not so much a stream as a series of jump-cuts from one haunting or zany impression to the next. His best poems have a weirdly, intriguingly satisfying quality.' - Alan Brownjohn, 'Creating a sensation,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Sunday Times, 10 January, 1999

'Stemming in part from Mallarme and in part from Whitman, Ashbery's work creates a tension in which the fine networks of linguistic reverie are balanced by the strong sense of American tradition.'- Peter Ackroyd, 'Books of the Year,' The Times Literary Supplement, 4 December, 1992 '...an Ashbery [poem] does not stand on its own but floats off into the reader's limitless consciousness like a balloon. Balloons can be very beautiful, inspire longing and also make you smile.'- Grey Gowrie, 'Where the commonplace is wonderful,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Daily Telegraph, 5 October, 1996 'John Ashbery's distinctiveness as a poet paradoxically resides in his ability to evade all single identities; like Whitman, he feels most fully himself when he contains multitudes ... [Ashbery] deploys a staggering variety of dictions, ranging from fragments of novelettish narratives to lyrical dream-visions, from the cliché of public speech to scraps of surrealist collage...'- Mark Ford, 'Free-wheeling towards the abyss,' Times Literary Supplement, 27 December, 1991 'Notoriously hard to characterise, Ashbery's poetry has been likened to many things - a spiritual experience or an animated cartoon ... No poet's lines are more accommodating to other voices and idioms ... Like restless guests, his subjects arrive and mingle, don unlikely disguises and abruptly announce they are "off on some expedition"...Such poise lends authority to his "positive melancholy," makes even his excesses ... masterly, and ensures that The Ashbery remains the destination of choice, the place "where everything gets unravelled just right."'- Julian Loose, Book and Poetry Review section, The Guardian, 3 November, 1992 'The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems.'- Andrew Zawacki, 'A wave of music,' Times Literary Supplement, 12 June, 1998 'John Ashbery is probably the most highly regarded living poet in America ... The "story" element in Ashbery comes over in fragmented and non-consequential ways, but the fragments have a strong power of visual evocation, and a startling precision of outline ... His focus is on a bravura artifice, a depersonalised surface crackling with "possibility," a brilliant randomness in which analogy with Action Painting asserts itself with special force...'- Claude Rawson, 'A poet in the postmodern playground,' Times Literary Supplement, 4 July, 1986

Ashbery is a more contravesial figure, his output (as he himself has said) 'either dismissed as nonsense or held up as a work of genius.' read more

An Overview of John Ashbery's Poetry
John Ashbery's poetry has always divided critics. read more

Independent Review � 13/11/99
Praised as a magical genius, cursed as an obscure joker, John Ashbery writes poetry like no one else . By Michael Glover
The American poet John Ashbery divides his time between two places, which amount to two quite distinctively different worlds. read more

With its exhilarating changes in register, its elusive journeys, ambitious vocabulary and, more than anything else, its intoxicating sense of fun, there's a renewed vigour to this latest offering from one of America's most accomplished poets. read more

These two books define the opposite ends of the poetic spectrum, though they were written by two men who were briefly lovers and composed at times not so very far apart. read more

'With the Illuminations ', Rimbaud's biographer Graham Robb writes, 'Romantic poetry enters the world of the airport lounge, the theme park and the third-world resort. read more

Edmund White considers a new attempt to render in English the utopia and dystopia evoked by Arthur Rimbaud in his prose poems, Illuminations .The translator, John Ashbery, another regular contributor to the TLS , is praised by White for capitalizing on the potential in English 'to change tone quickly and even comically'; opportunities that Rimbaud strove for in French as far as the language allowed. read more

The original article can be found here . A rebel poet whose star burns yet. read more

Verlaine, Rimbaud - and John Ashbery: the poetry of these men, once lovers, ranges from the Parnassian to the revolutionary These two books define the opposite ends of the poetic spectrum, though they were written by two men who were briefly lovers and composed at times not so very far apart. read more

Since their first publication in instalments in the magazine La Vogue in 1886, these magical, dynamic poems (written mostly in prose) have fascinated, challenged, compelled and transformed readers. read more

No one could claim that the inimitable, though much imitated, John Ashbery opens the door to newcomers as readily as the previous pair do. read more

There are so many ways of writing a poem. read more

John Ashbery’s poetic talent, as reviewers have increasingly noted, is the gift that keeps on giving. read more

To begin plainly, the book brings together twelve volumes to 1987, ordered chronologically by American publication, plus 65 uncollected poems from periodicals and anthologies to 1990. read more

It is now fifty-four years since John Ashbery's first collection Some Trees , appeared, and thirty-five since his most celebrated volume, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror . In recent years he has been canonized by the Library of America ( Collected Poems 1956-1978, with a second volume to come), while remaining a highly productive poet well into his ninth decade. read more

It's been two years since the last one, so it must be time for a new book of poems by John Ashbery. read more

John Ashbery's work has amused, amazed, outraged and appalled, delighted and divided readers of poetry for over fifty years. read more

It's been two years since the last one, so it must be time for a new book of poems by John Ashbery. read more

John Ashbery's work has amused, amazed, outraged and appalled, delighted and divided readers of poetry for over fifty years. read more

Pierre Martory (1920-98) was that rare thing, a poet who for most of his long and varied writing life seemed to have little or no interest in seeing his poetry appear in print. read more

With eyes wide shut Adam Thorpe enters a world of vivid dreams but elusive meanings John Ashbery is regarded as America's leading poet, the grand old master of a 'difficult Modernism'. read more

The Times Christmas Books 2008: Poetry A surprising discovery was John Ashbery's translations of Pierre Martory in The Landscapist ... read more

Going with the free flow Just as Norman Mailer, John Updike and Philip Roth were at various times regarded as the greatest American novelist since the second world war, John Ashbery and Robert Lowell vied for the title of greatest American poet. read more

Something burning Nicholas Lezard hails the later work of one of the truly essential poets, John Ashbery You may, on reading Ashbery's work, be reminded of John Cage's infuriating remark: "I have nothing to say and I am saying it, and that is poetry." read more

Master of the nonsensical John Ashbery's verse can be hard to understand, but the simple act of reading his latest collection, Notes From the Air , is a pleasure in itself, says Adam Phillips 'The worse your art is,' John Ashbery once said, 'the easier it is to talk about.' read more

David Herd, the Guardian , Saturday 12th November 2005
John Ashbery's prose is an education and his latest collection of poetry, Where Shall I Wander , is a treat says David Herd
Attention, shoppers
Here are two books by John Ashbery. read more

James Longenbach, The Boston Review , Summer 2005:
Poetry Is Poetry
"Frank O'Hara's poetry has no program and therefore cannot be joined," said John Ashbery after the death of his close friend in 1966. read more

John Freeman, The Glasgow Herald , 2nd April 2005 King across the water
Some boys dream of becoming a train driver. read more

The Economist , 26th March 2005
King of the Kaleidoscope
There was a time when John Ashbery's obtuse writing style was seen as too strange to be poetry at all. read more

Helen Vendler, New Republic , 25th February 2005:
John Ashbery, in a youthful review of Marianne Moore, cited what he called the "almost satisfactory definition" of poetry given by the nineteenth-century French poet Banville: "[Poetry is] that magic which consists in awakening sensations with the help of a combination of sounds ... read more

Joshua Clover, The Village Voice , 5th April 2005
Paris in the '50s:
Guy DeBord hits the sauce, and John Ashbery gives you Poundage sans asshole. read more

Daniel Morris, The Brooklyn Rail , May 2005
Making It Monumental
When rabid reverend Jim Jones convinced over 900 of his brainwashed California proselytes to drink from a tub of Kool-Aid spiked with cyanide and tranquilizers, the mass suicide that resulted was probably more widely reported than anything else during late November 1978. read more

Robert Peluso, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette , Sunday 29th May, 2005
Making the creative life worth living
During the past decade or so, cultural productions of all kinds have come to be seen as simple "content" or "product" by the people in charge of marketing them. read more

The Economist , 26th March 2005
King of the Kaleidoscope
There was a time when John Ashbery's obtuse writing style was seen as too strange to be poetry at all. read more

The London Review of Books :
Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara and Schuyler: a quartet of sublime jokers who imagined a city into existence. read more

Gareth Twose, Poetry Nottingham , Issue 58: Winter 2004
What is different and innovative about the new Carcanet anthology, The New York Poets , is it allows the reader to see how the quartet of Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler functioned, creatively, (and albeit briefly) as a group, a collective entity. read more

English poetry was languishing in the Fifties. read more

The London Review of Books :
Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara and Schuyler: a quartet of sublime jokers who imagined a city into existence. read more

"The 24th book by celebrated American poet John Ashbery, 'Chinese Whispers'creates gentle pictures, influenced heavily by elements of the everyday world. read more

"Wakefulness is as nuanced, subtle, and magnificent as Stevens's late poems in The Rock. read more

"He is quite simply the finest poet in English of his generation." read more

"The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems. read more

"Ashbury's central subject, the nature and value of imagination, is a crucial one. read more

"The career of a great writer must be one of constant self-renewal, and John Ashbery's most recent collection, Hotel Lautremont, provides evidence of his continuing poetic development. read more

"The essential subjects of Ashbery's poetry - subjectivity and time as we all experience them - are themselves general and elusive; and though in passing it says a good deal about them, its means are in the end mimetic rather than discursive. read more

"The tone is chummy and nostalgic, the verse glisteningly free, the rhythm a swell whose lows mutter against consumerism and despair, and whose highs achieve a real if wary visionary beauty. read more

"As We Know, John Ashbery's eighth collection, proves the poet to be as fertile and fresh as ever...He read more

"About much of Ashbery's work there is a fascinating panache of diction and phrasing which sends the reader back to the poems repeatedly...Ashbery read more

"John Ashbery's A Wave expresses with painful recognisability the apartness, impermanence and incoherence of individual existence today, and yet produces exuberant script for survival." read more

"The monochrome 16-line poems of Shadow Train have a great deal of charm and an elegance of diction...The read more

John Ashbery reads 'The Instruction Manual' (6:11 mins) John Ashbery reads 'What is Poetry' (0:50 mins) John Ashbery reads 'Local Legend' (1:52 mins)

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John Ashbery Books by this author: Collected French Translations: Poetry Collected French Translations: Prose Quick Question Illuminations (Tr.) Collected Poems 1956-1987 Planisphere The Landscapist (Tr.) Notes from the Air Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror (2e) A Worldly Country Where Shall I Wander Selected Prose The New York Poets: an anthology Chinese Whispers Your Name Here Girls on the Run Wakefulness Selected Poems The Mooring of Starting Out Can You Hear Bird And the Stars Were Shining Hotel Lautreamont Flow Chart As We Know Reported Sightings Self Portrait In a Convex Mirror A Nest of Ninnies Three Plays April Galleons A Wave Shadow Train About Reviews Audio John Ashbery is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, most recently Quick Question (January 2013). He is the recipient of many honours, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and a MacArthur ‘genius’ award. Born in Rochester, New York, he was educated at Harvard and Columbia. In 1955 he went to France on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent much of the next decade there, including several years as art critic of the International Herald Tribune and Paris correspondent of ArtNews magazine. Ashbery’s research on the life and works of Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) resulted in several groundbreaking articles, as well as the appearance in print of the first unpublished work of the writer to come to light after his death. His translations include works by Roussel, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, Stéphane Mallarmé, André Breton, Paul Eluard and many others. His 2008 translation of Pierre Martory’s The Landscapist was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation. The French government has appointed Ashbery as both Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Officier of the Légion d’Honneur. John Ashbery has a page on the Poetry Archive website, where you can listen to recordings of his poetry and access other useful resources. Click here. Praise for John Ashbery 'Praised as a magical genius, cursed as an obscure joker, John Ashbery writes poetry like no one else.' The Independent 'Great poetry, as T.S. Eliot said, can communicate before it is understood: Ashbery communicates in a way that both pays homage to language and transcends it at the same time.' The Guardian 'John Ashbery's Collected Poems 1956-1987, edited by Mark Ford (Carcanet), was a book I found inexhaustible. Possibly the greatest living English-speaking poet and one of the most prolific, Ashbery takes language to its limits, so that words serve as pointers to shifting experiences that elude description. Containing his masterpiece 'Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror', one of the most penetrating 20th-century meditations on what it means to be human, this collection succeeded in stirring my thoughts as well as delighting me.' John Gray The Guardian Books Of The Year 2010 'The language of [John Ashbery's] books is informed by his roving enthusiasms for particular composers. His tastes are both eclectic and out-of-the-way.'- *Michael Glover, 'A blue rinse for the language,' The Independent, 13 November, 1999* 'In his seventies John Ashbery offers a sprightly and energetic alternative. Instead of being sluggish he demands that the self must be even more alert, more vigilant, more attentive to the world around it, not indifferent to and weary of it. Alert, vigilant, attentive ... Wakefulness, the brilliantly evocative title of Ashbery's collection.' - *Stephen Matterson, 'The Capacious Art of Poetry,' Poetry Ireland Review* 62, 114** 'Harold Bloom regards [John Ashbery] as something akin to a genius...' - *Michael Glover, 'The poet as frustrated composer,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Independent, 14 August, 1998* '...Ashbery is still exuberantly dedicated to the truthful rendering of experience as a flow of sensations that defy interpretation. Consciousness is not so much a stream as a series of jump-cuts from one haunting or zany impression to the next. His best poems have a weirdly, intriguingly satisfying quality.' - *Alan Brownjohn, 'Creating a sensation,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Sunday Times, 10 January, 1999* 'Stemming in part from Mallarme and in part from Whitman, Ashbery's work creates a tension in which the fine networks of linguistic reverie are balanced by the strong sense of American tradition.'- *Peter Ackroyd, 'Books of the Year,' The Times Literary Supplement, 4 December, 1992* '...an Ashbery [poem] does not stand on its own but floats off into the reader's limitless consciousness like a balloon. Balloons can be very beautiful, inspire longing and also make you smile.'*- Grey Gowrie, 'Where the commonplace is wonderful,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Daily Telegraph, 5 October, 1996* 'John Ashbery's distinctiveness as a poet paradoxically resides in his ability to evade all single identities; like Whitman, he feels most fully himself when he contains multitudes ... [Ashbery] deploys a staggering variety of dictions, ranging from fragments of novelettish narratives to lyrical dream-visions, from the cliché of public speech to scraps of surrealist collage...'*- Mark Ford, 'Free-wheeling towards the abyss,' Times Literary Supplement, 27 December, 1991* 'Notoriously hard to characterise, Ashbery's poetry has been likened to many things - a spiritual experience or an animated cartoon ... No poet's lines are more accommodating to other voices and idioms ... Like restless guests, his subjects arrive and mingle, don unlikely disguises and abruptly announce they are "off on some expedition"...Such poise lends authority to his "positive melancholy," makes even his excesses ... masterly, and ensures that The Ashbery remains the destination of choice, the place "where everything gets unravelled just right."'*- Julian Loose, Book and Poetry Review section, The Guardian, 3 November, 1992* 'The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems.'*- Andrew Zawacki, 'A wave of music,' Times Literary Supplement, 12 June, 1998* 'John Ashbery is probably the most highly regarded living poet in America ... The "story" element in Ashbery comes over in fragmented and non-consequential ways, but the fragments have a strong power of visual evocation, and a startling precision of outline ... His focus is on a bravura artifice, a depersonalised surface crackling with "possibility," a brilliant randomness in which analogy with Action Painting asserts itself with special force...'*- Claude Rawson, 'A poet in the postmodern playground,' Times Literary Supplement, 4 July, 1986* Ashbery is a more contravesial figure, his output (as he himself has said) 'either dismissed as nonsense or held up as a work of genius.' read more An Overview of John Ashbery's Poetry John Ashbery's poetry has always divided critics. read more Independent Review � 13/11/99 Praised as a magical genius, cursed as an obscure joker, John Ashbery writes poetry like no one else . By Michael Glover The American poet John Ashbery divides his time between two places, which amount to two quite distinctively different worlds. read more With its exhilarating changes in register, its elusive journeys, ambitious vocabulary and, more than anything else, its intoxicating sense of fun, there's a renewed vigour to this latest offering from one of America's most accomplished poets. read more These two books define the opposite ends of the poetic spectrum, though they were written by two men who were briefly lovers and composed at times not so very far apart. read more 'With the Illuminations ', Rimbaud's biographer Graham Robb writes, 'Romantic poetry enters the world of the airport lounge, the theme park and the third-world resort. read more Edmund White considers a new attempt to render in English the utopia and dystopia evoked by Arthur Rimbaud in his prose poems, Illuminations .The translator, John Ashbery, another regular contributor to the TLS , is praised by White for capitalizing on the potential in English 'to change tone quickly and even comically'; opportunities that Rimbaud strove for in French as far as the language allowed. read more The original article can be found here . A rebel poet whose star burns yet. read more Verlaine, Rimbaud - and John Ashbery: the poetry of these men, once lovers, ranges from the Parnassian to the revolutionary These two books define the opposite ends of the poetic spectrum, though they were written by two men who were briefly lovers and composed at times not so very far apart. read more Since their first publication in instalments in the magazine La Vogue in 1886, these magical, dynamic poems (written mostly in prose) have fascinated, challenged, compelled and transformed readers. read more No one could claim that the inimitable, though much imitated, John Ashbery opens the door to newcomers as readily as the previous pair do. read more There are so many ways of writing a poem. read more John Ashbery’s poetic talent, as reviewers have increasingly noted, is the gift that keeps on giving. read more To begin plainly, the book brings together twelve volumes to 1987, ordered chronologically by American publication, plus 65 uncollected poems from periodicals and anthologies to 1990. read more It is now fifty-four years since John Ashbery's first collection Some Trees , appeared, and thirty-five since his most celebrated volume, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror . In recent years he has been canonized by the Library of America ( Collected Poems 1956-1978, with a second volume to come), while remaining a highly productive poet well into his ninth decade. read more It's been two years since the last one, so it must be time for a new book of poems by John Ashbery. read more John Ashbery's work has amused, amazed, outraged and appalled, delighted and divided readers of poetry for over fifty years. read more It is now fifty-four years since John Ashbery's first collection Some Trees , appeared, and thirty-five since his most celebrated volume, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror . In recent years he has been canonized by the Library of America ( Collected Poems 1956-1978, with a second volume to come), while remaining a highly productive poet well into his ninth decade. read more It's been two years since the last one, so it must be time for a new book of poems by John Ashbery. read more John Ashbery's work has amused, amazed, outraged and appalled, delighted and divided readers of poetry for over fifty years. read more Pierre Martory (1920-98) was that rare thing, a poet who for most of his long and varied writing life seemed to have little or no interest in seeing his poetry appear in print. read more With eyes wide shut Adam Thorpe enters a world of vivid dreams but elusive meanings John Ashbery is regarded as America's leading poet, the grand old master of a 'difficult Modernism'. read more The Times Christmas Books 2008: Poetry A surprising discovery was John Ashbery's translations of Pierre Martory in The Landscapist ... read more Going with the free flow Just as Norman Mailer, John Updike and Philip Roth were at various times regarded as the greatest American novelist since the second world war, John Ashbery and Robert Lowell vied for the title of greatest American poet. read more Something burning Nicholas Lezard hails the later work of one of the truly essential poets, John Ashbery You may, on reading Ashbery's work, be reminded of John Cage's infuriating remark: "I have nothing to say and I am saying it, and that is poetry." read more Master of the nonsensical John Ashbery's verse can be hard to understand, but the simple act of reading his latest collection, Notes From the Air , is a pleasure in itself, says Adam Phillips 'The worse your art is,' John Ashbery once said, 'the easier it is to talk about.' read more David Herd, the Guardian , Saturday 12th November 2005 John Ashbery's prose is an education and his latest collection of poetry, Where Shall I Wander , is a treat says David Herd Attention, shoppers Here are two books by John Ashbery. read more James Longenbach, The Boston Review , Summer 2005: Poetry Is Poetry "Frank O'Hara's poetry has no program and therefore cannot be joined," said John Ashbery after the death of his close friend in 1966. read more John Freeman, The Glasgow Herald , 2nd April 2005 King across the water Some boys dream of becoming a train driver. read more The Economist , 26th March 2005 King of the Kaleidoscope There was a time when John Ashbery's obtuse writing style was seen as too strange to be poetry at all. read more Helen Vendler, New Republic , 25th February 2005: John Ashbery, in a youthful review of Marianne Moore, cited what he called the "almost satisfactory definition" of poetry given by the nineteenth-century French poet Banville: "[Poetry is] that magic which consists in awakening sensations with the help of a combination of sounds ... read more David Herd, the Guardian , Saturday 12th November 2005 John Ashbery's prose is an education and his latest collection of poetry, Where Shall I Wander , is a treat says David Herd Attention, shoppers Here are two books by John Ashbery. read more James Longenbach, The Boston Review , Summer 2005: Poetry Is Poetry "Frank O'Hara's poetry has no program and therefore cannot be joined," said John Ashbery after the death of his close friend in 1966. read more Joshua Clover, The Village Voice , 5th April 2005 Paris in the '50s: Guy DeBord hits the sauce, and John Ashbery gives you Poundage sans asshole. read more Daniel Morris, The Brooklyn Rail , May 2005 Making It Monumental When rabid reverend Jim Jones convinced over 900 of his brainwashed California proselytes to drink from a tub of Kool-Aid spiked with cyanide and tranquilizers, the mass suicide that resulted was probably more widely reported than anything else during late November 1978. read more Robert Peluso, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette , Sunday 29th May, 2005 Making the creative life worth living During the past decade or so, cultural productions of all kinds have come to be seen as simple "content" or "product" by the people in charge of marketing them. read more The Economist , 26th March 2005 King of the Kaleidoscope There was a time when John Ashbery's obtuse writing style was seen as too strange to be poetry at all. read more The London Review of Books : Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara and Schuyler: a quartet of sublime jokers who imagined a city into existence. read more The London Review of Books : Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara and Schuyler: a quartet of sublime jokers who imagined a city into existence. read more The London Review of Books : Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara and Schuyler: a quartet of sublime jokers who imagined a city into existence. read more Gareth Twose, Poetry Nottingham , Issue 58: Winter 2004 What is different and innovative about the new Carcanet anthology, The New York Poets , is it allows the reader to see how the quartet of Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler functioned, creatively, (and albeit briefly) as a group, a collective entity. read more English poetry was languishing in the Fifties. read more The London Review of Books : Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara and Schuyler: a quartet of sublime jokers who imagined a city into existence. read more "The 24th book by celebrated American poet John Ashbery, 'Chinese Whispers'creates gentle pictures, influenced heavily by elements of the everyday world. read more "Wakefulness is as nuanced, subtle, and magnificent as Stevens's late poems in The Rock. read more "He is quite simply the finest poet in English of his generation." read more "The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems. read more "Ashbury's central subject, the nature and value of imagination, is a crucial one. read more "The career of a great writer must be one of constant self-renewal, and John Ashbery's most recent collection, Hotel Lautremont, provides evidence of his continuing poetic development. read more "The essential subjects of Ashbery's poetry - subjectivity and time as we all experience them - are themselves general and elusive; and though in passing it says a good deal about them, its means are in the end mimetic rather than discursive. read more "The tone is chummy and nostalgic, the verse glisteningly free, the rhythm a swell whose lows mutter against consumerism and despair, and whose highs achieve a real if wary visionary beauty. read more "As We Know, John Ashbery's eighth collection, proves the poet to be as fertile and fresh as ever...He read more "About much of Ashbery's work there is a fascinating panache of diction and phrasing which sends the reader back to the poems repeatedly...Ashbery read more "John Ashbery's A Wave expresses with painful recognisability the apartness, impermanence and incoherence of individual existence today, and yet produces exuberant script for survival." read more "The monochrome 16-line poems of Shadow Train have a great deal of charm and an elegance of diction...The read more John Ashbery reads 'The Instruction Manual' (6:11 mins) John Ashbery reads 'What is Poetry' (0:50 mins) John Ashbery reads 'Local Legend' (1:52 mins)	Share this... 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