Ekstasis by Peter Valente and Kevin Killian

Ekstasis by Peter Valente and Kevin Killian

This collaboration between two poets who also work in the visual arts, is a near perfect work of concision. Peter Valente turns the camera into poetry and Kevin Killian entices the poem to work with visual mastery.

—Neeli Cherkovski is currently finishing his new book of poems, Elegy for the Beat Generation

While Valente’s photographs appear coolly intimate, the deeper revelation is individual memory. What, exactly, have we been invited to witness? Is a face and body in the blue light sufficient? Or do we crave more? More tension, more ambivalence in the decision to share: what and how much? Ekstasis is a ménage à trois that rivals anything one could experience on Google+.

—Vanessa Norton is the cofounder and editor of Wasted Books.

Kevin Killian and Peter Valente’s haunting collaboration Ekstasis comes on like one of those dark dreams you can’t seem to shake – it’s memory and sensations still lingering long after you’ve awoken.

—Michael Salerno, artist, filmmaker, and publisher.

Peter Valente is the author of several books, the most recent of which is a translation of Nanni Balestrini’s Blackout (Commune Editions, 2017), and a couple of chapbooks. His poems, essays, and photographs have appeared in journals such as Mirage #4/Periodical, First Intensity, Aufgabe, Talisman, Oyster Boy Review, and spoKe. In 2019, City Lights will publish his co-translation of 33 of Artaud’s late letters (1945-1947) with an introduction by Stephen Barber. Presently, he is at work on a book for Semiotext(e). In addition, he has made 60 short films, 24 of which were shown at Anthology Film Archives.

Kevin Killian, one of the original “New Narrative” writers, has written three novels, a book of memoirs, four books of stories, and three books of poetry. For the San Francisco Poets Theater Killian has written forty-five plays, and the anthology he compiled with David Brazil—The Kenning Anthology of Poets Theater 1945-1985—has become the standard text on the subject. Recent projects include Tagged, Killian’s nude photographs of poets, artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and intellectuals; and forthcoming, with Dodie Bellamy, The Nightboat Anthology of New Narrative Writing 1977-1997.

Book Information:

· Paperback: 102 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-292-1

$22

Ekstasis Images by Peter Valente – Text by Kevin Killian Book Preview