November 15th – 2014 @ 8:00PM
Vyt Bakaitis has three books of poems to his name.
City Country (Black Thistle Press, NYC, 1991),
con/structs, a book of visuals and photographs in a limited edition (Arunas K. Photo+Graphics, NYC, 2001), and his latest
Deliberate Proof (Lunar Chandelier Press, NYC, 2010).
Vyt has also published translations of poetry from several languages, with his versions of the classic Romantics Hölderlin and Mickiewicz included in World Poetry (W. W. Norton, 1998). His second book of translations from the Lithuanian poet Jonas Mekas appeared as Daybooks 1970-1972 (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, NYC, 2003). In 1996 his versions of two early books of Lithuanian poems by Jonas Mekas, Idylls of Semeniskiai and Remeniscences, came out in one bi-lingual edition (There Is No Ithaca, Black Thistle Press). The Lithuanian Writers’ Union subsequently published two bi-lingual volumes of his selections from 20th-century Lithuanian poetry: XL Poems by Julius Keleras (1998) and the anthology Breathing Free (2001).
Pierre Joris is a poet, translator, essayist & anthologist who has published some 50 books, most recently, Barzakh: Poems 2000–2012 (Black Widow Press); A Voice full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly (co-edited with Peter Cockelbergh; Contra Mundum Press) & The University of California Book of North African Literature (volume 4 in the Poems for the Millennium series, coedited with Habib Tengour.) Other recent books include Bernat Manciet: Ode to James Dean (translated by PJ & Nicole Peyrafitte) from mindmade books (L.A.), Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj (poems) from Chax Press and Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader edited & translated by Joris. Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-between, essays on Joris’ work edited by Peter Cockelbergh, came out in 2012. Forthcoming in December 2014 is Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry of Paul Celan (FSG). His The Meridian: Final Version—Drafts—Materials by Paul Celan (Stanford U.P. 2011) was awarded the 2013 MLA Aldo & Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature). With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry. He lives & works in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his wife, performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte. Check out his Nomadics Blog.
