Burning Deck was a small press specializing in the publication of experimental poetry and prose. Burning Deck was founded by the writers
Keith Waldrop
Bernard Keith Waldrop (December 11, 1932 – July 27, 2023) was an American poet, translator, publisher, and academic. He won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2009 collection ''Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy''.
Early life and educ ...
and
Rosmarie Waldrop
Rosmarie Waldrop (born Rosmarie Sebald; August 24, 1935) is an American poet, novelist, translator, essayist and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958 and has settled in Providence, Rhode Island since the late ...
in 1961 and closed in 2017.
Overview
Although the Waldrops initially promoted ''Burning Deck'' magazine as a "quinterly", after only four issues the periodical was transformed into a series of pamphlets. The transformation continued later until the press became a publisher of books of poetry and short fiction.
[Forty Years of Burning Deck Press 1961 - 2001]
at Brown University Library Web site in conjunction with an exhibit on the press, accessed January 28, 2007.
The magazine published poets from different styles and schools. The main split in poets of that time was said to be the one between the "academics" and the "beats", but Burning Deck ignored that split to the point where authors sometimes complained of being published in the company of others so different from themselves.
[
By 1985, the economics of publishing had changed and it became financially more feasible to print regular books on offset presses and use letterpress work for smaller chapbooks, something the Waldrops have noted in the history of the enterprise (Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, ''Burning Deck: A History'') they wrote and published together. The Waldrops continued to design and print books that are made to last (using smyth-sewn, acid-free paper) but tried to keep the price affordable.][
]
Notable books
Although Burning Deck was a small, nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
press, it published works of innovative writing, including (alphabetical by author):
*''99: The New Meaning,'' by Walter Abish
*''A Geometry'' by Anne-Marie Albiach
Anne-Marie Albiach (9 August 1937 – 4 November 2012) was a contemporary French poet and translator.
Overview
Anne-Marie Albiach's was a renowned French poet and writer born in Saint -Nazaire, France on 9 August 1937. Anne- Marie Albiach ...
*''Why Write?'' by Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), ' ...
*''The Heat Bird,'' by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (; born October 5, 1947, in Beijing, China) is a contemporary poet. Winner of two American Book Awards, her work is often associated with the Language School, the poetry of the New York School, phenomenology, and visual a ...
*''Utterances,'' by William Bronk
*''The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and filmmaker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmma ...
),'' by Robert Coover
Robert Lowell Coover (February 4, 1932 – October 5, 2024) was an American novelist, Short story, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation ...
*''Striking Resemblance'' by Tina Darragh
*''Species of Intoxication: Extracts from the Leaves of the Doctor Ordinaire'' by Michael Gizzi
*''Artificial Heart,'' by Peter Gizzi
Peter Gizzi (born 1959 in Alma, Michigan) is an American poet, essayist, editor and teacher. He attended New York University, Brown University and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Life
Gizzi was born in Alma, Michigan to an Italian ...
*''The Countess from Minneapolis,'' by Barbara Guest
*''Innocence in extremis'' by John Hawkes
*''My Life,'' by Lyn Hejinian
Lyn Hejinian ( ; May 17, 1941 – February 24, 2024) was an American poet, essayist, translator, and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work ''My Life'' (Sun & Moon (publisher), Sun & Moon, 198 ...
*''A Test of Solitude'' by Emmanuel Hocquard
Emmanuel Hocquard (11 April 1940 – 27 January 2019) was a French poet.
Life
He grew up in Tangier, Morocco. He served as the editor of the small press ''Orange Export Ltd.'' and, with Claude Royet-Journoud, edited two anthologies of new Amer ...
*''Some Other Kind of Mission'' by Lisa Jarnot
*''Trial Impressions'' by Harry Mathews
Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer, the author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. Mathews was also a translator of the French language.
Life
Born in New York City to an ...
*''i.e.'' by Claude Royet-Journoud
Claude Royet-Journoud (born 8 September 1941 in Lyon, France) is a contemporary French poet and artist living in Paris .
Overview
Royet-Journoud's publications in French include his tetralogy, published between 1972 and 1997: ''Le Renversement'', ...
*''Numen,'' by Cole Swensen
*''The Windows Flew Open,'' by Marjorie Welish
*''Turneresque,'' by Elizabeth Willis
Translation
Burning Deck published two series of translation: ''Serie d'ecriture'' presented a new book of contemporary French poetry each year; ''Dichten='' presented an annual volume of contemporary German writing.
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
The Burning Deck homepage
of Burning Deck materials at Brown University
{{Authority control
Book publishing companies of the United States
Small press publishing companies
Alternative press
Poetry organizations
Publishing companies established in 1961
American companies established in 1961