Kenneth Goldsmith - Conceptual Poetics and Poetic Practice

Conceptual Poetics and Poetic Practice

Driven by a preoccupation with “Uncreativity as Creative Practice”, Goldsmith is essentially the habitual editor of one large project, contributing to both the study and practice of poetry as a writer, academic and as curator of the prolific archives at UbuWeb. His process, a series of writing and self-induced constraints has produced 600 pages of rhyming r phrases, sorted by syllables and alphabetized (No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96, 1997); everything he said for a week (Soliloquy, 2001); every move his body made during a thirteen-hour period (Fidget, 1999); a year of transcribed weather reports (The Weather, 2005); and one day, the September 1, 2000 issue of The New York Times, transcribed (Day, 2003). The Goldsmith's practice embraces the performance of the writer as process and plagiarism as content.

Extensive creative and critical responses to his work are archived at Kenneth Goldsmith, Electronic Poetry Center with several being consolidated in Open Letter: Kenneth Goldsmith and Conceptual Poetics (2005). Notable addresses of Goldsmith's poetry include those of the eminent critics Marjorie Perloff, Craig Dworkin, Sianne Ngai and Johanna Drucker and poets Bruce Andrews, Christian Bok, Darren Wershler-Henry, Christine Wertheim, and Caroline Bergvall. Poet and Critic Juliana Spahr asserts, "Kenneth Goldsmith is without a doubt the leading conceptual poet of his time". Mexico's leading national newspaper Mileno said, "Joyce hoy, Kenneth Goldsmith es el autor más emblemático de la primera década del siglo XXI."

The first symposium on Conceptual Poetics was held at the Oslo Poetry Festival in November 2007. A larger conference, Conceptual Poetry and its Others, organized by critic Marjorie Perloff was held at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in May 2008.

In 2011, he co-edited with Craig Dworkin "Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing" (Northwestern University Press, Chicago) and published a book of essays related to notions of conceptual poetics, "Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age" (Columbia University Press, New York).