{"title":"Bill Berkson","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"expect-delays","title":"Expect Delays","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9a6372;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePoetry by Bill Berkson \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch5 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eNovember 11, 2014 • 6 x 8.25 • 140 Pages • 978-1-56689-373-2\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eFrom a New York schoolmaster, wide-ranging poems that eyeball mortality with rare equilibrium, appreciating life’s richness and inevitable griefs.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWide-ranging and experimental, \u003cem\u003eExpect Delays\u003c\/em\u003e confronts past and present with rare equilibrium, eyeballing mortality while appreciating the richness and surprise, as well as the inevitable griefs, inherent in the time allowed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBill Berkson was a poet, critic, teacher, and curator. He collaborated with many artists and writers, including Alex Katz, Philip Guston, and Frank O’Hara, and his criticism appeared in ARTnews, Art in America, and elsewhere. Formerly a professor of liberal arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, he was born in New York in 1939. He died in June 2016.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch5 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eThanks to a 2013 ADA Access Improvement Grant administered by \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/vsamn.org\/\"\u003eVSA Minnesota\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, this title is also formatted for screen readers which make text accessible to the blind and visually impaired. To purchase this title for use with a screen reader please call (612) 338-0125 or email us at \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"mailto:info@coffeehousepress.org\"\u003einfo@coffeehousepress.org\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"text\"\u003e“His work is work that gets deeper and deeper the more you read it. Do yourself a favor and take the time to listen, and then read, and reread, Berkson.” \u003cb\u003e—Bird \u0026amp; Beckett Bookstore\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eExpect Delays\u003c\/i\u003e] is an instructive mantra for the present time in which thoughtful patience has been supplanted by mediated distraction. . . . The collection works in prose-poetic meditations and elegant aphorisms, weaving in contemporary culture, rounding out its absurdities and complexities with wry qualifications, historical particulars and unexpected reversals.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eHyperallergic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There are few poets writing today with the range and talent of Bill Berkson.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Insightful and inventive. . . . No aspect of life is off limits from the wit and skill of Berkson’s poetry and the world is better off for it.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—AskMen.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Like his good friend Frank O’Hara, Bill Berkson writes about friends and family (wife, son, mother on her 100th birthday) and isn’t afraid to drop a few glam names from life in the cities where he lives, in his case San Francisco and New York. In this he resembles Stéphane Mallarmé, who wrote verses on fans (the kind you wave) and notes on fashion, as well as difficult dreamlike poetry. Berkson includes two celesta-toned Mallarmé translations, one of them ‘Brise Marine’: (‘The flesh is sad, alas! And I’ve read all the books’) alongside journalistic patter: ‘Lovers for a time, Lee Wiley and Berigan began appearing \/ together on Wiley’s fifteen-minute CBS radio spot, \/ \u003ci\u003eSaturday Night Swing Club\u003c\/i\u003e, in 1936.’ \u003ci\u003eExpect Delays\u003c\/i\u003e is an all-too-familiar warning to urban Americans. In this case, the delays are as rewarding as the invigorating voyage.” \u003cb\u003e—John Ashbery\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Bill Berkson affords the pleasures of raucous refinement and epigrammatic élan in lyrics, translations, gleanings, and reflections. Like dissolving into a 40s movie or then again a dream of a conversation about new art and old jazz standards, these poems are sad and wise. ‘Part song, part simple fact,’ \u003ci\u003eExpect Delays\u003c\/i\u003e is recommended for libraries of every stripe and readers of every disposition: to all those who want their poetry dry and with a twist.” \u003cb\u003e—Charles Bernstein\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There is something very intimate about much of this book, the acrostics being personal\/about people. . . . I felt the juxtaposition of the types of poems to be an exciting facet of the book.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Conversant\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The simple and true conversion of everyday musings into the magnificence of eternal verities.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Journal\u003c\/i\u003e (South Carolina)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003e[Expect Delays]\u003c\/i\u003e combines difficult poetry with straightforward honesty rarely seen in contemporary poetry. Berkson’s strength is his versatility.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Cultural Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eExpect Delays\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterwork created by a poet who has worked his hands writing and teaching poems of all stripes.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Atticus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CHPbeta","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43707437646,"sku":"","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1475\/9808\/products\/Expect-Delays.jpg?v=1499210671"},{"product_id":"portrait-and-dream","title":"Portrait and Dream","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9a6372;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePoetry by Bill Berkson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch5 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eApril 1, 2009 • 7 x 10 • 352 pages • 978-1-56689-229-2\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitled after a Jackson Pollock painting at once figural and abstract, this collection spans nearly fifty years of Bill Berkson’s poetry in all its deftness and variety. His poems, full of nuance, intensity, and exuberant wit, spread meaning across the page like quicksilver, creating a body of work suffused with light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBill Berkson was a poet, critic, teacher, and curator. He collaborated with many artists and writers, including Alex Katz, Philip Guston, and Frank O’Hara, and his criticism appeared in ARTnews, Art in America, and elsewhere. Formerly a professor of liberal arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, he was born in New York in 1939. He died in June 2016.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"text\"\u003e“Wonderful. . . . Fifty years of slow-dawning epiphany.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Bay Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a generous selection of work by an important poet of the New York School. Known for his relationship to the art world, Bill Berkson writes a critically astute, witty (‘no rest for liquidity’), and lyrically present poetry. The push of his work is upward (buoyancy and spirit) and outward into the real. . . . But the purely poetic, as seen in his wonderful translation of Heine (‘Selfsame source of all love’s flows— \/ Lily, dove, sun and rose’) is also present, with its binding force and knowing glance.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul Hoover\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I’d like to thank Bill Berkson for: epitomizing objectivity \u0026amp; subjectivity; amusedly living in the cerulean blue, alizarin crimson mixed with titanium white, \u0026amp; burnt sienna world we’ve got; \u0026amp; writing for us.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003eBernadette Mayer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003ePortrait and Dream\u003c\/i\u003e is a rich collection, spanning fifty years of work. The only way to do it justice is to read and re-read it. It’s a fine book.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGalatea Resurrects\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What remains engaging in all of Berkson’s writing is how each poem and how every essay continues to be so distinctively and affectionately rendered.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJacket2\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CHPbeta","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43707611982,"sku":"","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1475\/9808\/products\/Portrait_and_Dream.jpg?v=1515103500"},{"product_id":"since-when","title":"Since When","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9a6372;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA memoir by Bill Berkson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch5 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eNovember 6, 2018 • 6 x 9 • 280 pages • 978-1-56689-529-3\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eFrank O’Hara, Marilyn Monroe, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg—champagne-soaked postwar Manhattan and bohemian 1960s San Francisco come alive in Berkson’s memoirs.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBill Berkson was a poet, art critic, and joyful participant in the best of postwar and bohemian American culture. \u003cem\u003eSince When\u003c\/em\u003e gathers the ephemera of a life well lived, a collage of bold-face names, parties, exhibitions, and literary history from a man who could write “of [Truman Capote's Black and White] ball, which I attended as my mother’s escort, I have little recollection” and reminisce about imagining himself as a character from Tolstoy while tripping on acid at Woodstock. Gentle, witty, and eternally generous, this is Bill, and a particular moment in American history, at its best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBill Berkson was a poet, critic, teacher, and curator. He collaborated with many artists and writers, including Alex Katz, Philip Guston, and Frank O’Hara, and his criticism appeared in \u003cem\u003eARTnews, Art in America,\u003c\/em\u003e and elsewhere. Formerly a professor of liberal arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, he was born in New York in 1939. He died in June 2016.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch5 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eThanks to a 2013 ADA Access Improvement Grant administered by \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/vsamn.org\/\"\u003eVSA Minnesota\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, this title is also formatted for screen readers which make text accessible to the blind and visually impaired. To purchase this title for use with a screen reader please call (612) 338-0125 or email us at \u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"mailto:info@coffeehousepress.org\"\u003einfo@coffeehousepress.org\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"text\"\u003e“\u003cem\u003eSince When\u003c\/em\u003e is a sentimental prayer to the great artists Berkson knew, not unlike a bittersweet and light-hearted speech delivered at a memorial service.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Commonplace Review\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Berkson was the ultimate fly on the wall, and through his evocative writing the reader gets to be the same.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Ploughshares\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cem\u003eSince When\u003c\/em\u003e is a pleasingly scattered series of reminisces, interviews, lists and character sketches by Berkson, who hung out in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s with scads of poets, artists and other creative types—so many that he can credibly list ‘that interesting subset of poets who were born in 1934.’” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Star Tribune\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cem\u003eSince When\u003c\/em\u003e offers a significant historical addition to the dreamlike worlds in Berkson’s poetry.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Poetry Foundation\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Since When] serves as a vivid testament to the enduring indispensability of relationships between artists.” —\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOpen Space\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe resulting mosaic gives a vivid account of Berkson’s colorful life in the intertwined literary and artistic milieus of New York and San Francisco during the postwar decades.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Art in America\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003cem\u003eSince When\u003c\/em\u003e is] sentimental and funny, and makes you believe in a shared social project. Berkson was dedicated to this, and the example of his poetry and practice astonishes in this terrific memoir.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Entropy Magazine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Imagine an ideal friend, someone of good character, honorable, congenial, smart, well-read, judicious, articulate, self-aware, open-minded, and socially graceful, a gifted writer at the center of New York’s and the Bay Area’s artistic communities for sixty years. That ideal friend is Bill Berkson, and in this marvelous book he tells the true and fascinating story of his life and times.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Ron Padgett\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Typical of a self-assured humility, Berkson buries his accomplishments under the persona of an affable raconteur in which everything from the monumental and historic to the most mundane has the same weight, viewed from an esthetic distance.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—The New Black Bart Poetry Society Parole Blog\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cem\u003eSince When\u003c\/em\u003e captures the throbbing zeitgeist of a NYC\/California experimental poetry\/art rhizome and brims with dazzling encounters and glamorous portraiture of some of the best, most talented minds, including the author’s own parents and their coterie. Enthralling conversation, quotation, and astute commentary: Judy Garland! Ezra Pound! Greta Garbo! Frank O’Hara! Joan Mitchell! Amiri Baraka! Poet and art critic Bill Berkson spanned high and low: uptown\/downtown zones of radical art mind. The Bohemian, dandyish, psychedelic, and the troubling hegemonic follies of a USA growing old because it ‘entered the twentieth century first’ (G. Stein) all romp in here. Bill had a shining boyish inquisitiveness, phenomenal memory, and a panoramic intelligence. Read this and eat your heart out for the belletristic, wild, and intimate days of the New York School. Entertaining—you feel you are in a very glamorous movie—but never shallow, this is serious history, required reading.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Anne Waldman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Both a valuable cultural history and a wonderfully appealing mosaic of an autobiography.” \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e—On the Seawall\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It’s tough to write a blurb about one of the most effortlessly cool and genuinely wise people you’ve ever met, especially when they already said it best with their high school yearbook quote: ‘Plato or comic books, I’m versatile.’ That was Bill, all the way. As his student, the main theme was, ‘Be kind, be clear, and a little humor goes a long way,’ a message that impacted our class deeply and continues to do so to this very day. This memoir is a celebration of his life and friends as told by Bill Himself, in that gentle and knowing voice, tales of getting karate chopped at by Norman Mailer, drinking with Joan Mitchell, long nights with Frank O’Hara, Elaine de Kooning, and Amiri Baraka, to name a few. Essential reading for any and all!” \u003cstrong\u003e—Devendra Banhart\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Bill was a still point in a turning world. He made grace and kindness, careful intelligence and everyday happiness, seem properties of a social commons—where you found yourself, when around him, and missed, when not. This beautiful book immortalizes that spell.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Peter Schjeldahl\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CHPbeta","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12094437818444,"sku":"","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1475\/9808\/products\/9781566895293_FC.jpg?v=1524147917"}],"url":"https:\/\/coffeehousepress.org\/collections\/bill-berkson.oembed","provider":"Coffee House Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}