DEATH OF NEW YORK CITY culls a selection of Nina Zivancevic's work from five books of poetry. Charles Simic writes in his forward to the book that in spite of Zivancevic's strong connections to Paris, New York and Belgrade (her birthplace), "the voice that comes through in her poems is that of an exile, of someone who travels with eyes and ears open. The genius of her art lies in her ability to make surprising connections between diverse cultures and literatures, giving her poetry a richness and range that is truly rare." Be sure to check out INSIDE & OUT OF BYZANTIUM, also available from SPD.
This is the Serbian poet Nina Zivancevic's most accomplished book of poetry written in English. Having escaped a multitude of multi-layered and multicultural traps as might be expected of any immortal poet,, in her latest book of verse she comes back to her origins. The poem 'Phoenix' reflects the poet's personal cycles of life in more ways than one but how many tmes can she emerge from the fire? “The Cure” is simply the poet's dialogue with her own death, having realised that all her negotiations with the possibilities of rebirth were over. A profound and essentially lyrical book which recalls the brave dialogues of the Stoics; "Death is nothing and I am not afraid of it". Peer Reviews: “Everything she learned about poetry - she learned from me!” Allen Ginsberg, three months before his death. "Brilliant." "Somewhat like Picasso." Genevieve Huttin, poet, philosopher, radio commentator. "Letters to Myself give life that supreme sense of urgency and change, and time, and meaning. I love this new collection." Johny Brown, Band of Holy Joy, sound sculpture, poet, playwright. "Often irreverent, prophetic but always abundantly generous, Nina Zivancevic's Letters are addressed to the self and to the world at large. An essential European poet for our times." James Byrne, editor of The Wolf Magazine poet, teacher. “Throwaways no one would throw away, conversation no one normally hears, confessions of a woman more sinned against than sinning, her poems revel in their simplicity and sophistication. Behind the comic mask, a lot goes on. Witness the effortless grand canvas of 'Berlin' to see how a bohemienne writes on the move, touching the European pulse. Niall Mc Devitt - International Times, Irish poet.
CMOK to YOu To presents the 2015 email correspondence of the Serbian-born poet, art critic and playwright Nina Zivančevic and Canadian cultural theorist Marc James Léger. In December of 2014 Léger invited Zivančevic to contribute a text to the second volume of the book he was editing, The Idea of the Avant Garde - And What It Means Today. Taken with each other's idiosyncrasies, their correspondence gradually shifted from amiable professional exchanges and the eventual failure to organize a scholarly event to that of collaborating on some kind of writing project. Several titles were attempted for the eventual book - Marshmallow Muse: The Exact and Irreverent Letters of MJL and NZ, The Orange Jelly Bean, or, I Already Am Eating from the Trash Can All the Time: The Name of This Trash Can Is Ideology, The Secreted Correspondence of Mme Chatelet and Voltaire, and I'm Taken: The E-Pistolary Poetry of Kit le Minx and Cad - but none of these proved to be more telling than CMOK, the Serbian word for kiss, which sums up the authors' quest for "harmony" in an altogether imperfect world and literary medium. In this book, names of real people were changed in order to protect those who might otherwise be offended by the unguarded and absurdist commentary of its authors. Despite this fact, it is the fragility and elasticity of the writers' superegos that is tested as they vacillate from personal registers to intellectual strata. At once a cis-avant-gardist's exploration of anti-art and a poet's claim to some weak form of autonomy, CMOK delights in both the pleasures of casual email and the sublime realizations of Jacques Lacan's theory of sexuation. CMOK is a hybrid genre and a quest into the real of virtuality that defies the literary standards. Its authors, who never met, answer one another's basic needs and questions, separated as they are by time zones and the ocean, but not culturally or spiritually.
CMOK to YOu To presents the 2015 email correspondence of the Serbian-born poet, art critic and playwright Nina Zivančevic and Canadian cultural theorist Marc James Léger. In December of 2014 Léger invited Zivančevic to contribute a text to the second volume of the book he was editing, The Idea of the Avant Garde - And What It Means Today. Taken with each other's idiosyncrasies, their correspondence gradually shifted from amiable professional exchanges and the eventual failure to organize a scholarly event to that of collaborating on some kind of writing project. Several titles were attempted for the eventual book - Marshmallow Muse: The Exact and Irreverent Letters of MJL and NZ, The Orange Jelly Bean, or, I Already Am Eating from the Trash Can All the Time: The Name of This Trash Can Is Ideology, The Secreted Correspondence of Mme Chatelet and Voltaire, and I'm Taken: The E-Pistolary Poetry of Kit le Minx and Cad - but none of these proved to be more telling than CMOK, the Serbian word for kiss, which sums up the authors' quest for "harmony" in an altogether imperfect world and literary medium. In this book, names of real people were changed in order to protect those who might otherwise be offended by the unguarded and absurdist commentary of its authors. Despite this fact, it is the fragility and elasticity of the writers' superegos that is tested as they vacillate from personal registers to intellectual strata. At once a cis-avant-gardist's exploration of anti-art and a poet's claim to some weak form of autonomy, CMOK delights in both the pleasures of casual email and the sublime realizations of Jacques Lacan's theory of sexuation. CMOK is a hybrid genre and a quest into the real of virtuality that defies the literary standards. Its authors, who never met, answer one another's basic needs and questions, separated as they are by time zones and the ocean, but not culturally or spiritually.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.