Pierre Joris

Pierre Joris, born in Strasbourg, France in 1946 and raised in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, is a poet and translator. He left Luxembourg at nineteen and since then has lived in the US, Great Britain, North Africa and France. In 1992 he returned to the Mid-Hudson valley and teaches in the Department of English at University at Albany.

elected publications

Poetry and translations

Joris has published over 20 books and chapbooks of his own poetry, among these :::*"Breccia: Selected Poems 1972-1986" (Editions PHI / Station Hill)::*"Poasis: Selected Poems 1986-1999" (Wesleyan University Press)::*"h.j.r." (EarthWind Press, Ann Arbor)::*"Winnetou Old" (Meow Press, Buffalo, NY)::*"Turbulence" (St. Lazaire Press, Rhinebeck)::*"Aljibar" (PHI, 2007), a bilingual edition with French translations by Eric Sarner.::*"Meditations on the Stations of Mansour Al-Hallaj" (Anchorite Press)::*"Aljibar II" (PHI, 2008), again a bilingual edition with French translations by Eric Sarner.

He has equally written and published many essays, introductions etc:::*Wesleyan UP brought out a selection of essays under the title "A Nomad Poetics" in fall 2003.::*SALT publishing brings out a selection of essays, called "Justifying the Margins: Essays 1990-2006" in fall 2008.

Joris has also published a range of translations, both into English & into French, the most recent being :::*"4x1: Translations of Tristan Tzara, Rilke, Jean-Pierre Duprey and Habib Tengour" (Inconundrum Press)::*"Abdelwahab Meddeb : Malady of Islam" (Basic Books)::*"Habib Tengour : Empedokles's Sandal" (Duration Press)::*Also noteworthy are his translations of Maurice Blanchot's "The Unavowable Community" and Edmond Jabès's "From the Desert to the Book" (Station Hill Press).::*As well as his numerous translations from English into French: Jack Kerouac's "Mexico City Blues", but also Carl Solomon, Gregory Corso, Pete Townshend, Julian Beck and Sam Shepard.

Miscellaneous:::*In 2007 his CD "Routes, Not Roots" appeared, with Munir Beken (oud), Michael Bisio (bass), Ben Chadabe (percussion) & Mitch Elrod (guitar).

Celan translations

Joris has translated three acclaimed works of poetry by Paul Celan into English (published by "Green Integer" and "Sun&Moon" Press); and most recently a "Selected" edition of Celan :
*"Paul Celan : Selections" (University of California Press);
*"Lightduress" (received the 2005 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation);
*"Threadsuns";
*"Breathturn" (re-issued recently as a Green Integer book)

Collaborations with Jerome Rothenberg

With Jerome Rothenberg he has published a two-volume anthology of 20th Century Avant-Garde writings, "Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry," (University of California Press) the first volume of which received the 1996 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award.

Rothenberg's & Joris's previous collaboration, "pppppp: Selected Writings of Kurt Schwitters" (Temple University Press, 1993, reissued in 2002 by Exact Change) was awarded the 1994 PEN Center USA West Literary Award for Translation.Rothenberg & Joris recently co-edited & co-translated "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Writings of Pablo Picasso" (Exact Change, 2004).

An issue of "Samizdat" commemorates the Joris/Rothenberg collaboration with original work and translations by both poets, and essays and poems for and about the poets.

Performance art and collaboration

As reader and performance artist, Joris's work with performance artist / singer / painter Nicole Peyrafitte includes :
*"dePLACEments" (premiered from 27 June to 2 July 2005 at Cave Poésie, Toulouse, France);
*"Manifesto&a" (premiered in Luxembourg, July 1998);
*"Riding The Lines," (European Tour summer 1997; New York City performance at the Here Inn, Dec 1997).

Other performances include:
*"Pierre's Words (Toward an Opera)," a collaboration with composer Joel Chadabe & the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company (Premiered May 3 1997, The Egg, Albany);
*"Frozen Shadows," a dance & reading performance based on "Winnetou Old", choreographed by Ellen Sinopoli & danced by the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company (Union College, Schenectady, NY January 21 1996 "The Egg," Albany, NY, April 12 & 13, 1995);
*"This Morning" (part of Music Juggle) a multimedia collaboration with composer Xavier Chabot (Premiered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY February 5 1997. Chabot presented this work in Japan in late 1997.

External links

* [http://pjoris.blogspot.com/ Nomadics] Joris's own weblog with links to other useful Joris sites
* [http://pierrejoris.com/home.html Joris Homepage]
* [http://www.samizdateditions.com/ Rothenberg-Joris special issue of "Samizdat"]
* [http://mtdmagazine.tripod.com/pjoris.htm Two Poems by Pierre Joris @ Melancholia's Tremulous Dreadlocks]
* [http://www.anti-rev.org/textes/Joris89a/index.html Pierre Joris on the book 'Heidegger and Fascism']