Poetry, African

Empire Burlesque

Name: Empire Burlesque
Author: Mark Svenvold
ISBN: 9780814251669

by Mark Svenvold

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Synopsis

Empire Burlesque begins with a romp through the Journals of Lewis and Clark and ends with cameo appearances by Ambrose Bierce, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound (in drag), Andy Warhol, and even King Kong. Mark Svenvold was inspired to this approach, which he describes as that of a "clown lost in the Library of Babel," by the letters of Jules Laforgue, who believed clowns had achieved true wisdom. With this collection the author shares Ezra Poundian-inflected poems that are funny, that are as serious as they come, and that realign the personal with the historical.

About the Author, Mark Svenvold

Mark Svenvold’s poetry has been published widely in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, The Iowa Review, The Journal, and Swink. He is winner of a Discovery/The Nation poetry prize; and his first collection of poems, Soul Data, won the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, selected by Heather McHugh. His nonfiction books are Big Weather: Chasing Tornadoes in the Heart of America (Henry Holt and Company, 2005) and Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw (Basic Books, 2002). He has written for Best Life and Harper’s and is currently working on an article for The New York Times Magazine about North America’s first solar-hydrogen residence. He lives and works in New York City.