This long-awaited collection of essays, edited by Robert Hampson and cris cheek, gives a chance for Allen Fisher’s many admirers to study his work (both literary and visual) in depth with a group of experts. Contributors include Clive Bush, cris cheek, Collum Hazell, Steven Hitchins, Pierre Joris (twice), Paige Mitchell, Will Montgomery, Redell Olsen, William Rowe, Scott Thurston, Shamoon Zamir, Karen Mac Cormack, Marjorie Welish, Matt Hart and Rob Holloway.
There is an online review of the book, by Simon Collings, on Tears in the Fence here. It quotes a pertinent remark of mine on Fisher's method.
And me. My contribution is my essay ‘Apocalypse Then’, referring to the politics of the late 1970s, and subtitled ‘Between Place and Gravity', to suggest that this is an interesting way to contextualise Allen Fisher’s two major long poems, and sub-subtitled, ‘Technique and Technology’ to gesture towards my focus up his writing methods and results, and upon one of the themes of the work by Fisher that I treat: The Apocalyptic Sonnets (written in 1978 but now visible in part in The Reality Street Book of Sonnets).
The book looks great, and I look forward to reading it. I have written about Fisher in most of my book-length studies of poetry, from The Poetry of Saying to The Meaning of Form, as well as in a number of essays, and reviews, including this one. It may also be read in my collection of essays, When Bad Times Made for Good Poetry, providing a different context. Also from Shearsman: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2011/02/two-new-books.html
Or here.
I write about Allen Fisher generally here:
https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2013/11/allen-fisher-and-robert-sheppard.html
I write about later work, Proposals, here, in preparation for part of The Meaning of Form:
https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2013/11/proposals-by-allen-fisher.html
and about his poetics, Necessary Business here:
https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2013/12/charles-bernstein-allen-fisher-and.html
For a similar sort of book, see The Robert Sheppard Companion, from Shearman:
https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-robert-sheppard-companion-ed-byrne.html
