May 2005 / ISBN 0-9761612-1-4 / 5.25 x 7.5 / $12.50
Carla Harryman's latest challenge to the separation of literary genres
features the sensual world and critical perspectives of a maverick
baby, who
enters the book as "fire in the womb with a skirt." Yet the baby of
Baby is
also a word whose function is and must be as pliable as a new gender.
One
wouldn't want to pin baby down, for, as a representative and
cognoscenti of
interpenetrated past, presents, and futures, Baby keeps open the
capacity
for revision. Harryman, a native of California, is identified with the
formation of the Bay Area language school of the 1970s and is widely
acknowledged as an innovator in poetry, prose, and interdisciplinary
performance works. Her work often addresses perspectives and politics
of
childhood. A 2004 recipient of the award in poetry from The Foundation
for
Contemporary Performing Arts, she is the author of twelve books,
including,
most recently, Gardener of Stars, an experimental novel (Atelos, 2001).
"Carla Harryman is a great wide-awake visionary — reading her is like
playing
Olympic ping-pong in eight dimensions!" (Robert Gluck). She currently
lives
in the Detroit Metro Area and is on the English faculty of Wayne State
University in Detroit.
