Jeff has published poetry, criticism, and mixed-form writing for over 15 years. He recently completed a manuscript entitled Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics, which explores the use of the word 'trouble' in 20th and 21st century music. His poetry manuscripts, F I L M O G R A P H Y and The FOEHN or, fern, are under consideration at several presses and have been finalists or received honorable mention for Subito Press's Book Contest and Coconut Books's Open Reading Period.
Page Contents:
Criticism
Mixed-Form Projects
Poetry (Online & Print)
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Criticism
Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics
A book-length meditation on the use of the word 'trouble' in 20th and 21st century music, Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics is part literary criticism, part prose poem, and part cultural archeology.
Excerpts from Trouble Songs, which is currently seeking a publisher, have appeared in The New Yinzer (Lee Hazlewood and Cat Power) and The Rumpus (Lambchop), and are forthcoming in Encyclopedia L-Z (Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa).
Music Criticism & Essays
From 2002-2007, Jeff was Kitchen Sink's Founding Senior Editor and Music Editor. He wrote articles on bands including The Fall, Quasi, Karen Dalton, The Thermals, Men's Recovery Project, Can, Giant Haystacks, Weezer, John Vanderslice, Pavement, Silver Jews, The Hold Steady, Brian Eno, The Mountain Goats, Destroyer, and Guided by Voices.
From 2011-2013, Jeff served as The Rumpus's Music Reviews Editor. While at The Rumpus, he conceptualized and wrote a column entitled "Record Related," which placed musicians' newly released records in conversation with their NYC-based live performances. Read his "Record Related" essays on Lambchop, Wild Flag, and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, or check out pieces on Carrie Brownstein and Aeroplane Pageant with Rick Moody.
Jeff's also written about Metallica, Black Francis, Pavement, and Radiohead for Coldfront; Destroyer for Fanzine; The Nervous Breakdowns, Slumber Party, and Continuous Peasant for SF Weekly; Blondie, Sleater-Kinney, Royal Trux, and Boss Hog for Fabula; and The Fall for Pitchfork.
Book Reviews
Jeff writes book reviews and essays on contemporary poetry, literary and experimental fiction, and culture writing. In particular, he is interested in innovative hybrid writing. Check out his recent reviews of Tan Lin, Thalia Field & Leslie Scalapino, Thomas Pynchon, Erín Moure, and Ben Lerner.
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Mixed-Form Projects
Letters from the Archiverse
Letters from the Archiverse is an ongoing visual poem composed in architectural modeling space, using AutoCAD design software. In progress since 2008, it combines attributes and methods in concrete poetry and open-field composition with 3D image modeling capabilities. The Archiverse explores materiality in writing and the potential for language-based visual art in an age of ready access to touch-screen mobile interfaces.
In collaboration with literary theorist Andrew Klobucar, Assistant Professor of English at New Jersey Institute of Technology, he is currently developing a mobile/tablet application that gives viewers an unprecedented level of control over a screen-based compositional environment. Their goal is to create an open-field, interactive and compositional space that intentionally blurs all traditional lines between viewers and authors/producers to offer a site of ongoing collaboration while building a single text-based artwork. This application’s development is part of a broader investigation of compositional space and language materiality in The Archiverse.
The Archiverse has been exhibited or performed at venues including HASTAC (Toronto, ON), The Observatory at Proteus Gowanus (Brooklyn, NY), and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NY).
Online:
ELMCIP
The Organism for Poetic Research: Artist Statement | Excerpts
PELT
Truck
The Newark Review
SPECIAL AMERICA
SPECIAL AMERICA is an exploration of American Exceptionalism, ambiguous political speech, and what Canadian poet Rachel Zolf calls 'mad affect.' In collaboration with Claire Donato, SPECIAL AMERICA presents itself at college campuses and academic conferences as an analog hack or meme, a gesture toward embodied viral media. In performance, it combines elements of site-specific institutional critique, radical appropriation, crowdsourcing, song and dance.
SPECIAL AMERICA has recently performed at Brown University (Providence, RI), The New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NJ), West Virginia University (Wheeling, WV), and a literary salon in South Bend, IN.
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Poetry
Online
LETTERS FROM THE ARCHIVERSE (at The Organism for Poetic Research)
ARCHIVERSE NEWARK REVIEW (at Newark Review 3.0)
ARCHIVERSE TRUCK TOUR (at Truck)
PELT, Vol. 1, The Skin of Space
Whiskey & Fox Parks & Occupation no. 3
Whiskey & Fox Parks & Occupation no. 2
Whiskey & Fox Parks & Occupation no. 1
Coldfront (@end of feature)
“Lost in the Paradise [A Musicological Poetics].” Encyclopedia (vol. 3, forthcoming).
“Fall’s Presentiment.” Boston Review (forthcoming).
“Into the Biscuit.” Forklift, Ohio (forthcoming).
Ravanastron Series. PELT (no. 2, May 2013).
“Chore Wheel,” “divider bide re,” “expans,” “On the Uses of I,” “Participle Board,” “Scrape Clause.” dandelion magazine (forthcoming).
“LIVE FROM THE VOID” (8 details). PELT (no. 1, May 2012)
“In Triplicate,” “Folk Music,” “Kenneth Koch’s Making Your Own Days.” Forklift, Ohio (issue 24).
“Crow’s Nest,” “So Long.” The Laurel Review (Spring 2011).
“Final Summer,” “In the Afterwarrantee,” “Resolving Door,” “The Way Out of No Way Out.” Whiskey & Fox (forthcoming).
“Anatomical Bender,” “Civic Bride,” “Mystery Guess,” “Separation Anxiety.” 1913 a journal of forms (issue 5, 2011).
“Costume Fortunes,” “Passing Fancy.” Holly White (vol. 1, issue 7, June 2010).
“Form,” “Again the Ruse.” Holly White (vol. 1, issue 6, May 2010).
“KC Star Teller Window.” VOLT 15 (2010): 80, 81.
“What Was That Again.” Cannibal 5 (2010).
“kansas city, missouri veranda,” “Sean Conway Tiverton All-Weather Collection.” Calaveras 1 (2010).
“Peripatetic Landscape,” “Better Habit,” “Speech Act,” “Manifest.” Whiskey & Fox (2010).
“Removable Text,” “Grow a Custom.” Holly White (vol. 1, issue 4, January 2010).
“have some.” Caketrain 7 (December 2009): 11.
“How Long,” “How Long We,” “H w L ng.” Ocho 25 (July 2009): 20, 44, 78.
“Audience,” “Book,” “Destroy.” Encyclopedia 1 (2006): 54, 105, 195.
