Joe Brainard’s Art, Edited by Yasmine Shamma, Edinburgh UP, 2019

Joe Brainard’s work occupies the literal margins of New York school poetry, while also figuratively influencing its aesthetic margins, shaping the school from both within and without. Brainard was not only an important illustrator and friend to many New York school poets, he was also a respected collage artist, miniature artist, cartoonist, avid letter writer and serious poet. As the canon of avant-garde American poetry warmly embraces his poetry alongside his art, the field of literary criticism is freshly responding with enthusiasm to Brainard’s literary contribution with sophisticated scholarship and first-hand accounts which attend to both his textual and visual nuances. This collection offers the first place for the importance of Brainard’s poetry, collaborations and art to be recognised for their contribution and influence, all in one place.

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Recent Beinecke Library H. D. Fellow Yasmine Shamma is a specialist in contemporary American and world poetry. She earned her DPhil from the University of Oxford, her MA from Georgetown University, and her BA from the American University of Beirut. She has worked as editor, writer, teacher, and scholar throughout the US, UK and Middle East. Her long-standing interest in the forms and figures of New York School poetry informs this collection. Her book, Spatial Poetics: Second Generation New York School Poetry is in press with Oxford University Press and due to be published in 2018.

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The Beinecke Library encourages scholars, students, and the public to engage the past in the present for the future. In the service of new scholarship, the library offers generous fellowships for visiting scholars and for graduate students to support research in a wide range of fields. Learn more about fellowship opportunities.