RAYMOND QUENEAU wrote “Le Chant du Styrène” in 1957 as the commentary for a short documentary the French Industrial group Pechiney commissioned filmmaker Alain Resnais to make about the production of plastic. Gerry Mulligan’s English translation changes the rhymed French alexandrines into pentameter to preserve the poem’s original effect. . .JESSICA DESSNER is an ex-dancer/choreographer who may yet emerge from retirement, a fledgling visual artist, and a poet. She recently completed the album artwork for Osso/Sufjan Stevens’ Run Rabbit Run. . .ELIO SCHNEEMAN (1961 – 1997) collaborated with SIMON PETTET on some translations of the contemporary Sardinian poet Alberto Masala’s poems. They came too late to appear in his posthumous book of poetry A Found Life (Telephone Books, 2000), and appear here in loving homage to his memory. . .STEPHEN JONAS (1920 – 1970, born Rufus S. Jones) was a key figure of the 60s Boston Poetry Scene. His Selected Poems, edited by Joe Torra, (Talisman House, 1994) remains available. . .LAURA HUNT is an artist living in Brooklyn. . .RAE ARMANTROUT’s new book, Versed, is a finalist for the National Book Award this year. She teaches at UC San Diego. . .TONY TOWLE’s twelfth book of poems, Winter Journey, was published by Hanging Loose Press in 2008. . .JAMES DUNN is a man of diminished vision from the backwoods of Bucks County. He sliced lunchmeat in New Hope and continues to pay homage to the Boognish—the patron demon god of the band Ween—from his current residence in the hills of Beverly, Massachusetts. . .DAVID RATTRAY (1936 – 1993) was a twenty-one year old undergraduate at Dartmouth when The Nation first published his ‘Weekend with Ezra Pound’ in 1957. His books include Opening The Eyelid (diwan, 1990), and How I Became One Of The Invisible (Semiotext(e), 1992). . .LEWIS WARSH’s most recent book is Inseparable: Poems 1995-2005 (Granary Books, 2008). He is editor and publisher of United Artists Books, and director of the MFA program in creative writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn. A new novel, A Place In The Sun, is forthcoming from Spuyten Duyvil in 2010. . .JOHN GODFREY’s latest book is City of Corners (Wave, 2008). Next summer he will have a new manuscript. . .RICHARD CHAMMINGS continues to write prose poems. . .MARY FERRARI’s new collection, To Friends of Cicadas, will appear early next year from Green Zone Editions. Her book Why The Sun Cannot Set is available from Hanging Loose Press. . .JACK COLLOM will soon celebrate his 78th birthday. He thinks he’s busy writing and teaching but he’s really just slow. . .STEVE MALMUDE has published four books of poetry from 1973 to 2002. His poems have appeared in The Hat, The Germ, Sal Mimeo, and The Best American Poetry 2002. . .JAMEY JONES secretly yearns to like baseball, and is currently puzzled by the eccentricities of steam heat. He huddles most mornings by the window, never quite sure how to begin.
Special Thanks to Eric Trudel, Robert Kelly, Raffael de Gruttola, Gerrit Lansing, Andrew Dieck, Sylvia Gorelick, Larry Fagin and Bill Berkson.
GERRY MULLIGAN #2 will appear in 2010.
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