Kit Robinson

THE GRAND PIANO is an ongoing experiment in collective autobiography by ten writers identified with Language poetry in San Francisco. It takes its name from a coffeehouse at 1607 Haight Street, where from 1976-79 the authors took part in a reading and performance series. The writing project, begun in 1998, was undertaken as an online collaboration, first via an interactive web site and later through a listserv. When completed, THE GRAND PIANO will comprise ten parts, in which each of the ten authors will appear in a different sequence. These poets are Bob Perelman, Barrett Watten, Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Tom Mandel, Ron Silliman, Kit Robinson, Lyn Hejinian, Rae Armantrout, and Ted Pearson.

An Experiment in Collective Autobiography, San Francisco, 1975-1980

The Grand Piano

Rae Armantrout

Barrett Watten

Steve Benson

Ted Pearson

Poetry. If Jelly Roll Morton should meet Emily Dickinson in 21st-century Las Vegas to compose occasional metaphysical stanzas, the result might resemble Kit Robinson's THE CRAVE: beautiful, strange, and ha-ha. Kit Robinson has been active as a poet, teacher, curator, and performer on the San Francisco Bay Area poetry scene for 30 years. In addition to THE CRAVE, he is the author of 15 books, the most recent of which (also available from SPD) include CLOUD EIGHT(written with Alan Bernheimer), DEMOCRACY BOULEVARD and BALANCE SHEET. "If we look in the direction/ these words will have to do/ adding to the enormous burden of words/ The entire concept is entirely too conceptual/ all we need is a few good words"-- (from "Return on Word"). Robinson lives in Berkeley and works as a marketing executive in the information technology industry.

Kit Robinson

Books

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