• Faculty

  • Jennifer Firestone

    Co-Chair of Literary Studies (Writing); Director of Academic Fellows; Associate Professor of Writing

    Email
    firestoj@newschool.edu

    Office Location
    B - 65 West 11th Street

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    Jennifer Firestone

    Profile

    Jennifer Firestone is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Story by Ugly Duckling Presse, five chapbooks, and has co-edited two anthologies, including one forthcoming from MIT Press, Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry, which is based on her course, Feminist Avant-garde Poetics.

    Firestone writes serial poems that interrogate ideas of indeterminacy, subjectivity, and the construction, use and performance of language. Her interest in the lyric and sonics informs her aesthetic and philosophy of the fragment, rupture, slipperiness, and ambiguity as being the closest indicatives of “real” life. Firestone writes not to resolve but to deepen the questions at hand and sometimes even the confusion.

    In her courses, Firestone uses experiments, play and collaboration to expand definitions of “poetry.” For her, process is as central as the finished poem and community as valued as much as the individual poet.

     

     


    Degrees Held

    MFA, Poetry, San Francisco State University


    Professional Affiliation

    Belladonna* Collaborative


    Recent Publications

    Books:

    Story (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019)

    Ten (BlazeVOX [books], 2019)

    Gates & Fields (Belladonna*, 2017)

    Flashes (Shearsman Books, 2013)

    Holiday (Shearsman Books, 2008)

    Chapbooks:

    Swimming Pool (DoubleCross, 2016)

    LITtle by LITtle (Dusie Kollektiv, 2014) in collaboration with Laura Y. Liu

    Fanimaly (Dusie Kollectiv, 2013)

    Waves (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2007)

    From Flashes (Sona Books, 2006)

    snapshot (Sona Books, 2004)

    Anthologies:

    Other Influences: An Untold History of Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry (MIT Press, 2024), co-edited with Marcella Durand

    Letters To Poets: Conversations About Poetics, Politics, And Community (Saturnalia Books, 2008)

    Selected Literary Journals & Anthologies

    Poems:
    Brooklyn Rail, Academy of American Poets, HyperallergicPrelude, About Place, Chicago Quarterly, EntropyDrunken Boat, e-ratio, 580 Split, Boog City, Fourteen Hills, How2, Kindergarde: Avant-Garde Poems, Plays, Stories, & Songs for ChildrenPoetry Salzburg Review, Ping Pong, Typo and Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics.

    Essays :
    The Volta, Poetry Northwest, Jacket Magazine, Tarpaulin Sky, Building is a Process/Light is an Element: Essays and Excursions for Myung Mi Kim, Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry: “Undressing Advertisements--Poetry as Feminist Critique through Harryette Mullen’s Trimmings.” . 

     


    Performances and Appearances

    Selected Readings:

    The Poetry Project, New York.|
    Segue, New York. Double Take. Apexart, New York.
    Mcnally Jackson, New York.
    Dixon Place, New York.
    Lévy Gorvy Gallery, New York.
    Mental Marginalia, Brooklyn.
    Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Avant-garde of One, Brooklyn.
    Black Radish Books and the Dusie Kollektiv, Seattle.
    Berl’s Poetry Shop, Brooklyn.
    Bookcourt, Brooklyn. |
    Spare Room, Portland.
    Canessa Gallery, San Francisco.
    Studio One, Oakland.
    A New Cadence Poetry Series, Santa Cruz.
    The Center for Book Arts, New York.
    Outpost 186, Cambridge.

     

     

     

     


    Research Interests

    20th and 21st century Experimental Poetry and Poetics with emphasis on The Feminist Avant-garde, Documentary and Investigative Poetics, Cross-Genre Texts, Procedural & Constraint-based Poetics, Projects of Community and Collaboration and small press publishing.

     


    Awards And Honors

    Gates & Fields named one of the best poetry books of 2017 by both The Brooklyn Rail & Lithub.

    2014 Marsh Hawk Press’ Robert Creeley Memorial Prize.

    Visiting Writer: Lower Manhattan Cultural Center Writing Residency (2013-2015).

    Writing Residences: Ragdale Foundation, Constance Saltonstall Foundation For The Art, Vermont Studio Center Residency.

    Recipient of Eugene Lang's Civic Arts residency on the feminist avant-garde.

    Recipient of New School's Mutual Mentoring grant.


    Current Courses

    Advanced Fellows
    LNGC 3965, Fall 2024

    Feminist Avant-garde Poetics
    LLSW 3100, Fall 2024

    Ind Senior Project
    LLSW 4990, Fall 2024

    Independent Study
    LLSW 3950, Fall 2024

    Lang Academic Fellows
    LNGC 3960, Fall 2024

    Future Courses

    Advanced Fellows
    LNGC 3965, Spring 2025

    Ind Senior Project
    LLSW 4990, Spring 2025

    Independent Study
    LLSW 3950, Spring 2025

    Lang Academic Fellows
    LNGC 3960, Spring 2025

    Poets Aloud: NYC Poetry
    LLSW 2908, Spring 2025

    Past Courses

    Advanced Fellows
    LNGC 3965, Spring 2024

    Ind Senior Project
    LLSW 4990, Spring 2024

    Independent Study
    LLSW 3950, Spring 2024

    Lang Academic Fellows
    LNGC 3960, Spring 2024

    Poets Aloud: NYC Poetry
    LLSW 2908, Spring 2024

    Senior Seminar: Poetry
    LLSW 4993, Spring 2024

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