Jennifer K Dick

Jennifer K Dick, (born 1970) is an American poet, translator and educator/scholar born in Minnesota, raised in Iowa and currently living in Mulhouse, France. She has been classified as a post-L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school poet and, by Amy Catanzano, as a U+F+O+L+A+N+G+U+A+G+E^[1] poet with a strong background in lyric and narrative tradition.

Teaching and writing career

She has taught American Literature, Creative Writing, and English and since 2009 has been a Maître de Conférences at the Université de Haute Alsace in Mulhouse, France. Her doctoral research for her PhD completed under the direction of Jean Bessière at the Université de Paris III: La Sorbonne Nouvelle in 2009 and critical writings on contemporary cross-genre poets and prose authors are in the field of Comparative Literature with an accent on Visual studies, Modernism, Postmodernism and the Avant-garde, including work on Susan Howe, Myung Mi Kim, Anne-Marie Albiach, Claude Royet-Journoud, Lisa Jarnot, and Maurice Roche. Dick also holds a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Colorado State University where she worked with Laura Mullen.^[2]

Works

Books

• Fluorescence (University of Georgia Press, 2004, Contemporary Poetry Series)^[3]
• Retina/Rétine (Estepa Editions, Paris, France, with artwork by Kate Van Houten and translations by Rémi Bouthonnier, 2005)
• ENCLOSURES (BlazeVox, New York, NY, 2007)
• Betwixt (Corrupt Books, 2012)
• Circuits (Corrupt Books, 2013)
• Conversion (Estepa Editions, with artwork by Kate Van Houten 2013)
• No Title (Estepa Editions, Paris, 2015) after artwork by Rabih Mroué
• Criticism: co-directed with Stephanie Schwerter: Transmissibility and Cultural Transfer: Dimensions of Translation in the Humanities (Ibidem Verlag, Stuttgart, 2012)
• Criticism: co-directed with Stephanie Schwerter: Traduire: transmettre ou trahir? Réflexions sur la traduction en sciences humaines (Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris, 2013)^[4]

In anthologies and collaborations

• Poetry: Tracery (Dusie Kollectif, chapbook, 20912)
• Poems: “A Dark Continent”, “The Price of an Idea” in Moosehead Anthology X: Future Welcome, an anthology of science-based poems edited by Todd Swift, DC Books, Canada, 2005.
• Poems: “The Memory Machine”, “Mucking Around in the Wetware” in Beyond the Valley of the Contemporary Poets, a VCP Anthology, ed Elizabeth Ianacci, Los Angeles, CA 2004.
• Poem: “Theater” in In the Criminal's Cabinet: An Anthology of Poetry and Fiction, ed Val Stevenson and Todd Swift, nth position press, London, 2004.
• Poem: “Where” in SHORT FUSE: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry, ed. Todd Swift and Paul Norton, Rattapallax Press, NYC, USA, 2002, and “After” in the e-book anthology extension, 2002.
• Poem: “Election Day” in 100 Poets Against the War, ed. Todd Swift, Salt Press, UK, 2003.

In journals

Other works have appeared in over 50 journals such as Colorado Review, Gargoyle Magazine, American Letters & Commentary, Tears in the Fence, Denver Quarterly, Cutbank, Barrow Street and Aufgabe. Recent poems from her 2014-16 project on the CERN appear on Dusie,^[5] Molly Bloom,^[6] Spoon Bending from Cordite Poetry Review,^[7] and Undertow Magazine and have been translated into Czech and French. Dick has conducted interviews with many contemporary poets who have had an influence on her work, such as Alice Notley,^[8] Cole Swensen,^[9] Marilyn Hacker,^[10] and Mary Jo Bang (who was the previous poetry editor of Boston Review).

Her critical writings^[11][12] and book reviews have appeared in Drunken Boat, Jacket 2 and Tears in The Fence. She also writes a regular poetics column for Tears in the Fence UK called "Of Tradition and Experiment".

Paris scene and Ivy writers

Ivy Writers - Monthly Bilingual Experimental Poetry Reading Series in Paris.

In 1993, Jennifer K Dick moved to France for the first time, but it was only after returning to Paris following her MFA in 1999 that Dick became involved with a young North American writing scene.

In 1999, Dick became editor-in-chief for the Paris-based international literature and arts review Upstairs at Duroc (issues 2-6). At this time, Dick met American poet and translator Michelle Noteboom (author of Edging, Cracked Slab Books, 2005). George Vance, Michelle Noteboom, current Upstairs at Duroc editor Barbara Beck and Jennifer K Dick formed a four-voice poetry performance group called "Quadriphonics" which drew a full house at each of its events.

In 2005, Dick and Noteboom co-founded IVY Writers Paris series in Paris Ivy Writers^[13] promotes exchange between authors from France and primarily the USA with monthly readings for the public. These performances bring together prominent poets from various countries who work primarily in an experimental vein of writing. In spring 2016 Ivy Writers Paris acquired association 1901 status with the intention of publishing a bilingual anthology of work by Ivy Writers Paris authors.

Residency for French authors "Écrire L'Art"

Campus Fonderie - Kunsthalle Mulhouse.

As an extension of the community writing activities in Paris, Jennifer K Dick has guest edited Ivy Writers Paris sections for Paris Lit Up Magazine, become in 2009 a poetry editor for the Amsterdam-based review Versal Literary Journal. Since 2011, Dick co-curates with Director Sandrine Wymann a tri-annual mini-residency for French authors at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse,^[14] France called "Écrire L'Art".

References