How Long Is the Present

Poet, performance artist, and critic David Antin invented the “talk poem.” He insisted that his poems be oral and created in front of a live audience, in a specific time and place, with the transcription of the performance adjusted for print by presenting it not in prose but in short units interrupted by white spaces to indicate verbal pauses with little or no punctuation.

In this book editor Stephen Fredman provides critical introductions to a selection of talk poems from Antin’s now out-of-print collections in conjunction with a new interview with the author. As Fredman points out, Antin’s work is a form in conceptual writing that has influenced a generation of experimental poets. His talk poems are essential for classroom and scholarly discussions about modernism, postmodernism, and poetry - offering an opportunity to strengthen the tie between science and the humanities.