I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing By Women

by Caroline Bergvall (Editor), Laynie Browne (Editor), Teresa Carmody (Editor)

Conceptual writing is emerging as a vital 21st century literary movement and I’ll Drown My Book represents the contributions of women in this defining moment. Edited by Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody and Vanessa Place, I’ll Drown My Book takes its name from a poem by Bernadette Mayer, appropriating Shakespeare. The book includes work by 64 women from 10 countries, with contributors’ responses to the question—What is conceptual writing?—appearing alongside their work. I’ll Drown My Book offers feminist perspectives within this literary phenomenon.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Kathy Acker, Oana Avasilichioaei & Erin Moure, Dodie Bellamy, Lee Ann Brown, Angela Carr, Monica de la Torre, Danielle Dutton, Renee Gladman, Jen Hofer, Bernadette Mayer, Sharon Mesmer, Laura Mullen, Harryette Mullen, Deborah Richards, Juliana Spahr, Cecilia Vicuna, Wendy Walker, Jen Bervin, Inger Christiansen, Marcella Durand, Katie Degentesh, Nada Gordon, Jennifer Karmin, Mette Moestrup, Yedda Morrison, Anne Portugal, Joan Retallack, Cia Rinne, Giovanni Singleton, Anne Tardos, Hannah Weiner, Christine Wertheim, Norma Cole, Debra Di Blasi, Stacy Doris & Lisa Robertson, Sarah Dowling, Bhanu Kapil, Rachel Levitsky, Laura Moriarty, Redell Olsen, Chus Pato, Julie Patton, Kristin Prevallet, a.rawlings, Ryoko Seikiguchi, Susan M. Schultz, Rosmarie Waldrop, Renee Angle, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Tina Darragh, Judith Goldman, Susan Howe, Maryrose Larkin, Tracie Morris, Sawako Nakayasu, M. NourbeSe Philip, Jena Osman, kathryn l. pringle, Frances Richard, Kim Rosenfeld, and Rachel Zolf.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Writing, Fiction, Art, Gender

454 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2012

About the author

Caroline Bergvall is an award-winning poet and sound artist, of French-Norwegian background based in London, UK. She works across artforms, media and languages; and outputs alternate between books, collaborative performances and language installations. Her pieces and essays have been translated into many languages.

Reviews

[Mark Noack · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fantastic book. as an overview/introduction to current post-modern writing, the most interesting anthology i have read to date. while some of these writers might not have made the "cut" for the Goldsmith/Dworkin anthology, possibly due in part to their work being too "baroque" (in Vanessa Place's terms); this is my preference. while i find conceptual/experimental writing interesting, much of what has been done suffers the danger of becoming automatic/generated/stenography. while the dadaist argument can & has been made that this writing is not always meant to be read - that is is presented for the purpose of introspection on the method & intent, this has by it's very nature very limited appeal & a very short half-life; & reductive use of language always suffers the danger of becoming reactionary.

this book presents a broad range of modern writing with conceptual tendencies, without sacrificing creativity. there are no empty rooms here. in addition, there is a consistent feminist focus which is not particularly common in women's poetry anthologies generally, & is certainly missing in "feminist" discussion in american society as a whole.

high points for me: Monica de la Torre, Danielle Dutton, Joan Retallack, Laura Mullin, Debra di Blasi (!!!!), & Jena Osman among others.

missing: Susan Holbrook?

[Janey Smith]

My review of I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women: http://htmlgiant.com/reviews/ill-drow...

[Yigru Zeltil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This - not only feminist - anthology is a real improvement (also being complementary) to "Against Expression". What the editors understand by "conceptual writing" proves at times to be a bit too loose (but it is interesting that they let the authors also express their stance on this matter), but the classification by constellations of techniques is certainly useful and gives a bone to this properly done anthology.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

sparse entries, but a good overall representation with some new work i'm glad i encountered.

[Erin Lyndal Martin]

This wasn't my cup of tea, so I didn't finish. Bummer because I was really psyched about it.

[Sigrun Hodne]

A perfect gift from dear a friend! Looking forward to diving into it!

[Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenny G is neither the be all nor the end all of conceptualism - as much as he may want to be