'I have read no other work that better captures the particular stakes of poetry's politics right now, amidst the new crises and social movements this side of Language Poetry and the dry well of Conceptualism. Hickman's is a call to begin again that should resonate across and reanimate our discussions of poetry.' Stephen Collis, Simon Fraser University 'Hickman's important study productively explores responses to a series of political crises to investigate poetry's capacity for political intervention. This challenging work directly addresses the political role of poetry (and poets), re-asserting "real politics" and agency against the formalist politics of Language Poetry and the anti-subjectivism of the New Conceptualism.' Robert Hampson, Royal Holloway, University of London Crisis and the US Avant-Garde charts the energies and tensions of avant-garde poetics and vanguard politics Examining the politics of poetry through the lens of crisis, the book provides a timely commentary on the role poetic culture might play in political struggle going forward into our own various contemporary crises. Connecting major twentieth-century poets and movements, including Objectivism, Muriel Rukeyser, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka and Language Poetry, with their various moments of political upheaval, and reading poems as attempted interventions in 'turning-points' or 'moments of decision' within American culture, Crisis and the US Avant-Garde looks at how poetry seeks to go beyond poetic language, and investigates how experimental 'American poetry has responded to imperialism, war, class conflict and capital itself. Key Features - Reassesses the US avant-garde's relation to political events - Explains how we might talk about a 'context' for avant-garde art - Provides detailed readings of major poets, including Louis Zukofsky, Muriel Rukeyser, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, Amiri Baraka and others - Key reference point for experimental cultural politics today Ben Hickman is the author of John Ashbery and English Poetry (2012) and has published numerous essays on the New York School, the New American Poetry, John Clare and others. He is Lecturer in Modern Poetry and Director of the Centre for Modern Poetry at the University of Kent. Cover image: Dyslecstasy, by Jess Collins (1991) (c) 2015 by the Jess Collins Trust and used by permission. Cover design: Andrew Henderson [EUP logo] euppublishing.com