Editing Language poets (section)

===Language poetry in the early 21st century===
In many ways, what Language poetry is <!-- not a mistake-->is still being determined. Most of the poets whose work falls within the bounds of the Language school are still alive and still active contributors. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Language poetry was widely received as a significant movement in innovative poetry in the U.S., a trend accentuated by the fact that some of its leading proponents took up academic posts in the [[Poetics]], [[Creative Writing]] and [[English Literature]] departments in prominent universities ([[University of Pennsylvania]], [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|SUNY Buffalo]], [[Wayne State University]], [[University of California, Berkeley]], [[University of California, San Diego]], [[University of Maine]], the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]]).

Language poetry also developed affiliations with literary scenes outside the States, notably England, Canada (through the [[Kootenay school of writing]] in Vancouver), [[French literature|France]], the [[USSR]], [[Brazil]], [[Finland]], [[Sweden]], [[New Zealand]], and [[Australia]]. It had a particularly interesting relation to the UK ''[[avant-garde]]'': in the 1970s and 1980s there were extensive contacts between American Language poets and veteran UK writers like [[Tom Raworth]] and [[Allen Fisher]], or younger figures such as [[Caroline Bergvall]], [[Maggie O'Sullivan]], [[cris cheek]], and [[Ken Edwards]] (whose magazine ''Reality Studios'' was instrumental in the transatlantic dialogue between American and UK ''avant-garde''s). Other writers, such as [[J.H. Prynne]] and those associated with the so-called [[British Poetry Revival#Cambridge|"Cambridge" poetry scene]] ([[Rod Mengham]], [[Douglas Oliver]], [[Peter Riley]]) were perhaps more skeptical about language poetry and its associated [[polemics]] and theoretical documents, though Geoff Ward wrote a book about the phenomenon.

A second generation of poets influenced by the Language poets includes [[Eric Selland]] (also a noted translator of modern Japanese poetry), [[Lisa Robertson (poet)|Lisa Robertson]], [[Juliana Spahr]], the [[Kootenay School]] poets, [[conceptual writing]], [[Flarf]] collectives, and many others.

A significant number of women poets, and magazines and anthologies of innovative women's poetry, have been associated with language poetry on both sides of the Atlantic. They often represent a distinct set of concerns. Among the poets are [[Leslie Scalapino]], [[Madeline Gins]], [[Susan Howe]], [[Lyn Hejinian]], [[Carla Harryman]], [[Rae Armantrout]], [[Jean Day]], [[Hannah Weiner]], [[Tina Darragh]], [[Erica Hunt]], [[Lynne Dreyer]], [[Harryette Mullen]], [[Beverly Dahlen]], [[Johanna Drucker]], [[Abigail Child]], and [[Karen Mac Cormack]]; among the magazines [[HOW/ever]], later the e-based journal [[HOW2]]; and among the anthologies ''[[Out of Everywhere: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America & the UK]],'' edited by Maggie O'Sullivan for Reality Street Editions in London (1996) and Mary Margaret Sloan's ''[[Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women]]'' (Jersey City: Talisman Publishers, 1998).

Ten of the Language poets, each of whom at one time curated the reading series at the San Francisco coffee house of that name, collaborated to write ''The Grand Piano'', "an experiment in collective autobiography" published in ten small volumes. Editing and communication for the collaboration was accomplished over email. Authors of The Grand Piano were [[Lyn Hejinian]], [[Carla Harryman]], [[Rae Armantrout]], [[Tom Mandel (poet)|Tom Mandel]], [[Ron Silliman]], [[Barrett Watten]], [[Steve Benson (poet)|Steve Benson]], [[Bob Perelman]], [[Ted Pearson]], and [[Kit Robinson]]. An eleventh member of the project, [[Alan Bernheimer]], served as an archivist and contributed one essay on the filmmaker [[Warren Sonbert]]. The authors of The Grand Piano sought to reconnect their writing practices and to "recall and contextualize events from the period of the late 1970s."<ref>Barrett Watten, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070630065810/http://www.english.wayne.edu/fac_pages/ewatten/posts/post34.html "How ''The Grand Piano'' Is Being Written"], archived from the [http://www.english.wayne.edu/fac_pages/ewatten/posts/post34.html original] on 2007-06-30. Also: [[James Sherry (poet)|James Sherry]]'s commentaries in ''Jacket'', [http://jacketmagazine.com/32/sherry-piano.shtml The Ten-Tone Scale].</ref>
<ref>''[http://www.thegrandpiano.org/about.html The Grand Piano]''. thegrandpiano.org. Retrieved 2020-04-12.</ref> Each volume of ''The Grand Piano'' features essays by all ten authors in different sequence; often responding to prompts and problems arising from one another's essays in the series.

Some poets, such as [[Norman Finkelstein (poet)|Norman Finkelstein]], have stressed their own ambiguous relationship to "Language poetry", even after decades of fruitful engagement. Finkelstein, in a discussion with Mark Scroggins about ''The Grand Piano'', points to a "risk" when previously marginalized poets try to write their own literary histories, "not the least of which is a self-regard bordering on narcissism".<ref>Mark Scroggin (April 2007), [http://kulturindustrie.blogspot.com/2007/04/toy-piano.html "The Toy Piano"], ''Culture Industry'' blog, with commentary by Norman Finkelstein.</ref>