Douglas Blazek
"[DOUGLAS] Blazek's career as a publisher and editor of literary magazines may have begun with THE CRIB in 1961, but he went on to achieve attention and respect by his launch of OLE, a magazine "Dedicated to the cause of making poetry dangerous." OLE ran for eight issues, from 1964-1967, and made a tremendous impact, giving visibility (sometimes for the first time) to poets from CHARLES BUKOWSKI to WILLIAM WANTLING, from HAROLD NORSE to JACK GRAPES, from LOWENFELS to AL PURDY to D.R. WAGNER to d.a. levy to CHARLES PLYMELL ...
"Blazek also edited the first and only issue of OPEN SKULL (1967), a unique magazine in its conception, as it was then (and still remains) the 'only magazine dedicated exclusively to the correspondence between writers as a more natural outlet for the flow of their ideas and experience.'
"He published BUKOWSKI'S "Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts" (1965), the first published prose book by Bukowski, and Bukowski's "All The Assholes in the World and Mine" (1966). From 1965 to 1970, he published chapbooks by WANTLING, LYN LIFSHIN (her first book appearance), CARL LARSEN, BROWN MILLER, d.a. levy, T.L. KRYSS, JOEL DUETSCH, and KAREN WARING..."
"But to Blazek's poetry itself: there is a great difference between the poems he wrote in the 60s and 70s and the work he has been doing in the last twenty years. If Blazek has been known to the literary world as an acolyte of BUKOWSKI, as the compatriot of d.a. levy, as the editor and publisher of what some had referred to as "Meat Poetry," for instance, these associations must be given up when considering his work today. ... "
"[Blazek] is not now associated with any particular group of poets; he lives a somewhat hermitic life dedicated to poetry and personal transformation ... He is now more serious than playful ... His poetry today is more intricate and complex, yet more clear and streamlined, than before."
-- From James DenBoer's introduction,
"A Bibliography of the Published Works of Douglas Blazek, 1961-2001"
"Blazek also edited the first and only issue of OPEN SKULL (1967), a unique magazine in its conception, as it was then (and still remains) the 'only magazine dedicated exclusively to the correspondence between writers as a more natural outlet for the flow of their ideas and experience.'
"He published BUKOWSKI'S "Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts" (1965), the first published prose book by Bukowski, and Bukowski's "All The Assholes in the World and Mine" (1966). From 1965 to 1970, he published chapbooks by WANTLING, LYN LIFSHIN (her first book appearance), CARL LARSEN, BROWN MILLER, d.a. levy, T.L. KRYSS, JOEL DUETSCH, and KAREN WARING..."
"But to Blazek's poetry itself: there is a great difference between the poems he wrote in the 60s and 70s and the work he has been doing in the last twenty years. If Blazek has been known to the literary world as an acolyte of BUKOWSKI, as the compatriot of d.a. levy, as the editor and publisher of what some had referred to as "Meat Poetry," for instance, these associations must be given up when considering his work today. ... "
"[Blazek] is not now associated with any particular group of poets; he lives a somewhat hermitic life dedicated to poetry and personal transformation ... He is now more serious than playful ... His poetry today is more intricate and complex, yet more clear and streamlined, than before."
-- From James DenBoer's introduction,
"A Bibliography of the Published Works of Douglas Blazek, 1961-2001"
posted by Richard Hansen at
2:57 PM
<< Home