American Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 10 (1989) Winner
Leslie Scalapino
レスリー・スカラピノ
Resurī Sukarapino
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1944-07-25 （Santa Barbara, California, U.S.）
- Died
- 2010-05-28 （Berkeley, California, U.S.） age 65
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Santa Barbara (birthplace) → Berkeley (raised and longtime residence) → Oakland (founded and ran O Books) → Extensive travel (Tibet, Bhutan, Japan, India, Mongolia, Yemen, Libya, etc.)
Career
- Occupations
- poet, playwright, publisher, essayist, editor, teacher
- Active Years
- 1974-2010
- Affiliations
- Bard College (taught in MFA program for 16 years), Mills College (instructor), San Francisco Art Institute (instructor), California College of the Arts (instructor), San Francisco State University (instructor), UC San Diego (instructor), Naropa University (instructor), O Books (founder/operator), Poets in Need (board member)
- Influenced By
- Beat poets, Language poets, Lyn Hejinian
- Influenced
- Contemporary experimental poets and scholars
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reed College | Literature | Literature | B.A. | 1962–1966 | United States |
| University of California, Berkeley | English | English/English Literature | M.A. | — | United States |
Reed College
Literature
/ Literature
Degree:
B.A.
Period:
1962–1966
Year of Graduation:
1966
Country:
United States
Received B.A. in Literature
University of California, Berkeley
English
/ English/English Literature
Degree:
M.A.
Country:
United States
Earned an M.A. in English (year not specified in sources)
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Poetry Center Award | Way | — | Poetry Center | 受賞 |
| 1988 | Lawrence Lipton Prize | Way | — | Lawrence Lipton Prize | 受賞 |
| 1988 | American Book Award | Way | — | Before Columbus Foundation | 受賞 |
Poetry Center Award
1988
Work:
Way
Organization:
Poetry Center
Result:
受賞
Lawrence Lipton Prize
1988
Work:
Way
Organization:
Lawrence Lipton Prize
Result:
受賞
American Book Award
1988
Work:
Way
Organization:
Before Columbus Foundation
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
Way
1988 long poem / experimental poetryA long experimental poem that re-examines language and experience through fragmentary narration and conceptual/visual maneuvers.
languageperceptionselfconceptual rebellion
O and Other Poems
1976 poetryOne of her early poetry collections, containing experimental pieces and poetic fragments.
linguistic experimentimagery
The Return of Painting, The Pearl, and Orion: A Trilogy
1991 fiction / inter-genreA trilogy crossing fiction and experimental essays, notable for visual motifs and fragmented narration.
visual representationfragmentationreconstruction of narrative
It's go in horizontal: Selected Poems 1974-2006
2008 poetry (selected poems)A selected poems volume collecting representative works from 1974 to 2006, tracing Scalapino's poetic experiments.
timelanguagetravel
Bibliography
- O and Other Poems (1976)
- The Woman who Could Read the Minds of Dogs (1976)
- Instead of an Animal (1978)
- This eating and walking is associated all right (1979)
- Considering how exaggerated music is (1982)
- that they were at the beach — aeolotropic series (1985)
- Way (1988)
- Crowd and not evening or light (1992)
- Sight (with Lyn Hejinian, 1999)
- New Time (1999)
- The Tango (with Marina Adams, 2001)
- Day Ocean State of Stars' Night: Poems & Writings 1989 & 1999-2006 (2007)
- It's go in horizontal, Selected Poems 1974-2006 (2008)
- The Return of Painting (1990)
- Defoe (1995)
- Dahlia's Iris — Secret Autobiography and Fiction (2003)
- Zither and Autobiography (2003)
- Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows (2010)
- The Dihedrons Gazelle-Dihedrals Zoom (2010)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- experimentalinter-genrepostmodern techniquesfragmentary and visual expression
- Recurring Motifs
- limits of language and narrationtravel and cross-cultural experiencememory and fractured selfvisual imagery
Legacy
Scalapino is regarded as a leading figure in American experimental and inter-genre writing; through O Books and her teaching she influenced many poets. Her work is widely anthologized and considered an important example of poetic experimentation.
Archives
- Leslie Scalapino Papers, MSS 668, Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library
In Popular Culture
- Leslie Scalapino Memorial Lecture and other commemorative events
Quotes
-
A solitary, an original. What other way could there be for someone with a mind so electric, independent and restless except out into the space-time conundrum? Because she is thoroughly modern, every moment of experience is interrupted and unstable, accompanied by introspection and sidelong glimpses at the social. The poet here is a horrified witness, a perpetual child, a sexually alert female who keeps looking back to believe what she has seen.
Source: Fanny Howe (blurb on Scalapino)
Trivia
- Founded O Books in 1986 and ran it until 2010.
- Taught for 16 years in the Bard College MFA program.
- Published more than thirty books of poetry, prose, plays, and essays during her lifetime.
- Traveled to Tibet, Bhutan, Japan, India, Mongolia, Yemen, Libya, among other places; these travels influenced her writing.