James Wagner (poet)

James Wagner (born 1969) is an American poet. The poet and critic Joyelle McSweeney wrote that the poems in his first collection, the false sun recordings, "form a semi-coherent push-me/pull-you-type dialogue about stability and wholeness, by turns humorous... and serious.[1] In recent works such as The Idiocy and Query/Xombies, Wagner focuses on the searching qualities of human existence, whether through logical argument (and its attendant pitfalls), or through the medium of the search engine, nominally the modern oracle. His third and most recent collection of poetry, Thrown, poems to paintings by Bracha L. Ettinger, was cited by poet Eileen Tabios for its imaginative intensity, ambition and lyrical prowess.[2]

James Wagner
James Wagner reading his poems at Zinc Bar, April 30, 2006, New York City. Photograph by Jess Fanzo.

The literary scholar and critic Carla Billitteri[3] has written in an introduction to Wagner’s work given at the University Of Maine:[4]

The quality of Wagner’s own poetry reflect the profound cognitive turn caused by homophonic translations, and reflect Wagner’s translinguistic sensibility—his way of thinking his own language from the vantage point of other languages and other cultures. Thus Wagner’s writing often seems to call us—and demands our attention—from a region close, but not too familiar, a region dislocated in time and languages—a region of radical dislocation.[5]

Further, the poet and critic Rachel Galvin[6] has written: “Wagner’s Trilce stakes out its ludic freedom somewhat in the spirit of Vallejo and emphasizes above all its indifference to questions of “fidelity” in translation.”[7] And Michael Smith (poet) and Valentino Gianuzzi,[8] editors and translators of a 2012 edition of Vallejo's poems, call Wagner's Trilce, "the latest homage to Vallejo’s most difficult book."[9]

The poet and critic Laura Sims[10] has written of his first book, the false sun recordings:

James Wagner’s debut collection strikes the reader instantly as a highly musical, humorous and playful chaos …This varied blend of elements supports the inquiry Wagner conducts, via poetry, into how language relates (and does not relate) to meaning and human existence. He prefaces his entire collection, in fact, with a quote from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, ‘Can I say ‘bububu’ and mean ‘If it doesn’t rain I shall go for a walk’?,’ which sets the stage perfectly. Instead of feeding us an easy answer, Wagner grapples in plain sight with this and other questions. We, in turn, are inspired to struggle with the ambiguities ourselves, and this greatly enriches our reading experience.[11]

In addition, Wagner has written two books of stories, Work Book and Geisttraum—Tales from the Germans, which focuses on a rural community in Wisconsin haunted, in part, by a priest. The poet and critic Vanessa Place has said of Geisttraum: “Language as solid and fearsome as the religious American Middle West: plain, transparent and similarly constituent of its own allegorical surface. A sussurating surface that threatens always to slip under itself and away.”[12]

Significant influences on his work include: Paul Celan, Marjorie Welish, Leslie Scalapino, César Vallejo, Clark Coolidge, Lissa Wolsak, Tan Lin, Steve Timm, Michael Burkard, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Paul Maliszewski, John Cage, Buddhist philosophy, Samuel Beckett, Peter Handke, and Werner Herzog.[13][14]

Bibliography

the false sun recordings (3rd bed, 2003)[15]

Trilce, with artwork by Derek White, (Calamari Press, 2006)[16]

Work Book, with drawings by Edgar Arceneaux, (Nothing Moments, 2007)[17]

Geisttraum—Tales from the Germans (Esther, 2010)

Query/Xombies (Esther, 2010)

The Idiocy: Plays (Esther, 2012)[18]

Thrown, poems to paintings by Bracha L. Ettinger (There Press, 2014)[19]

Traces  Poems to Paintings, Nava Waxman & James Wagner

https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780990800415/traces.aspx

1. McSweeney, Joyelle. "Review of the false sun recordings". The Constant Critic. Fence Books. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
2. Tabios, Eileen (December 3, 2014). "Review of Thrown, poems to paintings by Bracha L. Ettinger". Galatea Resurrects. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
3. Billitteri, Carla. "faculty page". University of Maine. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
4. Shannon, John (April 3, 2011). "Praised Poet Wagner Finds Beauty in Sanity". The Maine Campus. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
5. Billitteri, Carla. "introduction". Esther Press. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
6. Galvin, Rachel. "faculty page". The Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
7. Galvin, Rachel (2010). "review". Zoland Poetry. 1. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
8. Gianuzzi, Valentino. "author page". Shearsman Books. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
9. Vallejo, César (2012). The Complete Poems (PDF). Shearsman Books. p. xxiv. ISBN 978-1-84861-226-6.
10. Sims, Laura. "author page". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
11. Sims, Laura (October 2004). "review". Jacket. 26. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
12. Place, Vanessa (April 11, 2010). "Extemporalis on the New Masculinist Lyric: In which will be discussed Douglas Kearney's The Black Automaton (Fence 2009), James Wagner's Geisttraum (Esther Press 2010), and Steven Zultanski's Pad (Make Now Press 2010)". Constant Critic. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
13. Sims, Laura (October 2004). "review". Jacket. 26.
14. Silliman, Ron. "review". Silliman's Blog. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
15. Wagner, James. the false sun recordings. Calamari Press. ISBN 9780970942814. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
16. Wagner, James. Trilce. Calamari Press. ISBN 9780977072323. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
17. Wagner, James (2007). Work Book. Nothing Moments. ISBN 9781934500224.
18. Wagner, James (2012). The Idiocy: Plays. Esther. ISBN 9780615670324.
19. Wagner, James (2014). Thrown, poems to paintings by Bracha L. Ettinger. There Press.

20. Wagner, James (2015) https://www.spdbooks.org/AdvancedSearch/DefaultWfilter.aspx?SearchTerm=PubName&PublisherName=Ceratonia+Siliqua+Press