CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/1/2025

A Granary History of 20th-Century Experimental Poetics

Behold, spreads from early Fall 2025 release, After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960–2025, drawn from the deep collection of legendary Granary Books publisher Steve Clay and published to accompany an exhibition curated by Clay and new Granary co-publisher MC Kinniburgh, on view at the Grolier Club in NYC through July 2025. A thematic journey through the history of recent experimental poetics—including cut-up, collage, sound poetry scores, performance scripts, practices of “writing through,” erasure, glyph systems, calligraphy, experimental typography, non-Western alphabets, assemblages and beyond—this humble but mighty collection spans from Kenneth Patchen’s The peacock when placed (1955) to Lois Elaine Griffith’s You See What You See (Granary, 2025). Clay and Kinneburgh conclude their introductory essay by touching on the significance of manifestoes across the decades of visual poetry covered here. “A new way of looking, a new way of being. Now more than ever, we continue to live in text-based environments that are increasingly image-heavy—social media, email, the Internet. We continue to share the anxieties that haunted the first generations of concrete and visual poets—war, nationalism, ecological destruction. May our turning of ears and eyes towards these poets chart new ways forward in political and aesthetic life, and may the evidence of their efforts inspire us to create works and communities that sustain us.”

d.a. levy, The Tibetan Stroboscope, Ayizan Press, 1968. Taii Ashizawa and Takehisa Kosugi, guest eds, Japanese Schmuck, no. 8., Beau Geste Press, Spring 1976. Mary Beach, ed, Fruit Cup, no. 0., Beach Books, Texts & Documents, Inc., 1969.