O Powerful Western Star: Poetry & Art in California

No one knows more than Jack Foley about California poetry. A literary host on KPFA radio, as well as a reviewer, critic, and poet, he can be counted on to tell us what the Language poets, New Formalists, neo-Beats, and myriad movement-of-one poets are up to. In O Powerful Western Star, he brings his critical insights, artistic vision, and prodigious knowledge of literary history to bear in essays, interviews, and a timeline that chronicles events of the ever-evolving Northern California literary scene from 1940 through 1999. In addition to discussing the work of individual poets--including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Gerald Vizenor, and Larry Eigner--Foley explores issues such as the relationship between the spoken and written word in poetry and the simultaneous emergence of new forms of expression in visual art and poetry. The book has an introduction by Dana Gioia and a companion volume, Foley's Books, with essays, reviews, and interviews on the work of many more poets. O Powerful Western Star comes with a CD that proves literary criticism can be a performance art. But perhaps only Jack Foley can make it so.