The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry

Blake Hobby is former executive editor of Black Mountain College Studies.
For more information about Blake Hobby, visit the Author Page.

Alessandro Porco is associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
For more information about Alessandro Porco, visit the Author Page.

Joseph Bathanti is McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University.
For more information about Joseph Bathanti, visit the Author Page.

“Like the experimental college whose poetic heritage it documents, this collection is a marvel, literally the best presentation of any literary phenomenon we have had in the United States. Nothing half so meticulous exists for the Beats, the New York School, the Spicer Circle, or the San Francisco Renaissance. Not just the famous names, but short-term faculty, students, affiliates, and visitors as well. This book raises the bar for everyone.”—Ron Silliman, author of The Alphabet

"This long-awaited Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry expands our awareness of what constitutes that seminal time and place. Here we get essential takes: Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, John Wieners, Paul Blackburn—plus others farther afield: Cage, Fuller, Goodman, Eigner, Levertov—and Josef Albers's elegant epigrams. Kudos to Editors Hobby, Porco, and Bathanti for deepening the field. Copious annotation adds to the pleasurable dive."—Vincent Katz, editor of Black Mountain College: Experiment in Art

"Finally, we have the Black Mountain poets—a diverse community of potters, painters, scientists, homemakers, scholars, and prose writers—whose poems pay tribute to the unique learning community that nurtured the creative spirit of its fortunate inhabitants. Hobby, Porco, and Bathanti have opened the field and shuffled the deck. I eagerly await the new thinking that inevitably will follow."—Mary Emma Harris, author of The Arts at Black Mountain College

"The extraordinary progressive experiment, Black Mountain College, and the poets that worked within it as founders, guests, and students carrying the vision forward were integral to my work as a poet. When Allen Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, and I founded the Kerouac School at Naropa, we looked to Black Mountain as an example of a rare, generative, noncompetitive arts education. John Cage told us it 'all happened at lunch!' This anthology brings together an inspiring range of poetries, a monumental feat that showcases the ripple effect still felt today, over ninety years later. This poetry archive is of major historical significance. Kudos to the editors, their impressive teamwork, and the resources this tome brings to fans and scholars everywhere."—Anne Waldman, legendary author of over sixty books and cofounder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where she is Distinguished Professor of Poetics.