Thursday, February 21, 2019

in the early 1970s, I cast my lot with poets outside of the academy, and it is a pleasure to announce that one of the kindred spirits I most admire in the independent press movement will be reading at Beyond Baroque this coming Sunday, February 24, starting at 4 p.m. Maureen Owen is one of the twenty most important poet-editors of the past half-century, and she has been accompanied by poet and fiction writer Barbara Henning for a little over a month on a cross-country reading tour. A blog of their trip, which launched itself with a reading in Brooklyn, New York on January 18th, can be found at: http://barbarahenning.com/category/maureenowen/

I first encountered a substantial selection of Owen’s work in the 1970s, in issue number five of a magazine called BIG DEAL, and have often wondered why she is not as prominent as some other poets associated with one phase or another of the “New York School.” She certainly did an extraordinary amount of heroic work in the community of poets in the Lower East Side.
Steve Clay’s extraordinary documentary survey of independent presses is the best and most easily accessible source for beginning to appreciate the accomplishments of Maureen Owen as an editor and publisher.

Telephone

However, her own collections of poetry are even more deserving of our attention. Her most recent book, EDGES OF WATER, is from Chax Press in Arizona, a project that its founder Charles Alexander has made one of the outstanding literary publishers in the United States. Other books include AMERICAN RUSH: Selected Poems(Talisman House, 1998), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize; and Erosion’s Pull (Coffee House, 2006).

Barbara Henning’s books include four novels as well as collections of poetry, the most recent one being A DAY LIKE THIS (Negative Capability, 2015).

For an extended interview with Maureen Owen, I recommend the following:

In Conversation With Maureen Owen