Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry

by Dean Rader

"By writing honestly about the difficulties of self-representation, Rader represents himself as a writer who cares deeply about his audience and his craft." — ZYZZYVA "Rader's poetry asks how to be an artist in a nation founded on and still struggling with the demand for representation and what poetry as a medium means in an era of representational sprawl." — Jacket Wikipedia articles are never finalized. In Dean Rader's energized and inventive new book, the poet considers identity of self and society as a Wikipedia page—sculpted and transformed by the ever-present push and pull of politics, culture, and unseen forces. And, in the case of Rader, how identity can be affected by the likes of Paul Klee's paintings and the characters from the children's stories about Frog and Toad. Rader's cagey voice is full of humor and inquiry, warmly inviting readers to fully participate in the creation. From How We A This afternoon I took a nap
wearing a costume that looks
just like me. Inside it I felt like
another person who happened
to know so many things about me,
like my preference for almonds over
cashews, how sometimes, when
I am in a strange room, I imagine
hopping from one piece of
furniture to the next . . . Born in Oklahoma, Dean Rader has published in the fields of poetry, American Indian studies, and popular culture. He is a professor of English at the University of San Francisco, and writes regularly on literature and politics for The San Francisco Chronicle .

Genres: Poetry

124 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2017

About the author

Dean Rader has authored or co-authored thirteen books. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days, won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize. His 2014 collection Landscape Portrait Figure Form was named by The Barnes & Noble Review as a Best Poetry Book. Other titles include the poetry collection Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry and the anthologies Native Voices: Contemporary Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations and Bullets into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence.

Rader writes and reviews regularly for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, BOMB, Ploughshares, Artforum, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, where he co-authors a poetry column with Victoria Chang. In 2020, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Balakian Award. In 2022, he began the popular video series, "Poems that Changed Me."

His most recent collection of poems, Before the Borderless: Dialogues with the Art of Cy Twombly, was named by Bookriot as one of ten “mesmerizing” books of modern poetry. Rader’s writing has been supported by fellowships from Princeton University, Harvard University, the MacDowell Foundation, Art Omi, and The Headlands Center for the Arts. He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow in poetry and a professor at the University of San Francisco.

Reviews

[Julie Ehlers]

Dean Rader's "America I Do Not Call Your Name Without Hope" was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on the day after the U.S. presidential election, and from that moment on I was desperate for the publication of Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry, not just so I could hold that poem physically in my hands, but so I could see what else Rader, a poet I'd never heard of before, was capable of. So I'm saddened to have to give this book only three stars. As its title might imply, a lot of this book is highly self-conscious, meta, and/or overly impressed with its own cleverness. There are definitely some excellent poems in here, but the fact is that every time I read a good one I was caught off guard, because I'd been expecting more of the meta stuff, so it was hard to feel the poems' full power. I could never quite decide exactly what Rader hoped to accomplish, and more than once I wondered if he was trying to pull one over on the reading audience. I'm still not certain what was going on here. I should probably read this book again someday and see if it strikes me differently, but if I'm honest I'm pretty sure it would strike me exactly the same.

[Jane Hammons]

As the title suggests, Rader is going to have a lot of fun with the reader. I loved the sense of humor in this book, the play with words and identity. Oklahoma is a place very familiar to me both as a place and a geneaology--many people from my family are from there, both Cherokee and white--I hear their twangs while reading. A lot of love and dark humor as well here.

[Allie]

Started reading this on divine impulse from a check out at the Cupertino library. Finished when the book jumped out at me again at City Lights Booksellers.

Wonderful. I had a few exceptional favorites I’ll be returning to, but the whole body of work is fantastic.

[Brian]

So, I was thinking, “this Rader guy is one of those cerebral poets,” but then I had to ask “what’s a cerebral poet?”, thinking “he’s working with ideas more than emotions” and then catching myself “but don’t emotions get formed in the brain, too, so isn’t it all cerebral” and “what makes him different from, say, Sylvia Plath?” and… so Dean Rader is getting me (us) to think about poetry—what makes it poetry—looking at the effects of different elements of form and substantive intention. And I love the way he ends the collection: “Reader, I want to apologize for bringing you here. I know you thought we were headed someplace else. I confess that I did as well. Grief is a snow squall./ It blinds, but it too moves along. Do not be angry. I have left you the coat.”

[Jessicabutler]

This was not without its difficulties. Since anyone can edit Wikipedia, there have been instances of incorrect information being published, which can lead to issues because it may be untrue. There are pages on Wikipedia that are locked and cannot be edited in the same way as other pages. I had the opportunity to do this for a Professional Wikipedia writers for hire to complete an assignment for a college course visit here: https://www.wikicreationinc.com/. Although it was an interesting experience, editing a page that piqued my interest gave me a sense of accomplishment. I understand the concept of having a large-scale, publicly accessible database that is open to contributions from the general public.

[Patti K]

This volume of enjoyable poems was published last year in 2017. The title
drew me in with its cleverness and humor. There were many self-portraits
as various subjects and things. All done with clean, powerful language that
satisfied whatever details he was reporting. A very fun book of poems. From
"Self-Portrait at the End,": Black bell, ring the blue boat/ of my bones back
to the beach/ of this world, make me an ear/ so that I may hear the sound..."

[Cody]

sooo good! scratches the same itch in my brain that bob hicok does. fave pieces - “the poem chooses its own adventure,” “twenty lines on paul klee’s ‘the man in love,’” “labor; or american allegory II,” and “not long after rich: a study”

[Emma]

I really liked how the self-portrait concept was used throughout this book.

[brooke]

Favorites were: America, I Do Not Call Your Name without Hope, Still Life with Gratitude, and Poem for the World

[Brandon Amico]

Existential dread never felt so satisfying

[Ana]

Crazy ass book that PABS made us read but I remember actually really liking it

[A]

“Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry” is an extraordinary work of art. I don’t reread books very often, but many of these poems will be pieces I seek out and return to often.