Ghosts

Poetry. "Contemporary poems on the ancient past have to be ghosts. They are dragged through the inscriptions of strangers until they become something ethereal and gray. And in that spectral light, as we know, colors become brighter as if shining from rain. This is how I read these poems and find them fresh"&Fanny Howe.

Martine Bellen is the author of the novella 2X(SQUARED) (BlazeVOX Books, 2010) and seven collections of poetry, including GHOSTS! (Spuyten Duyvil, 2011), THE VULNERABILITY OF ORDER (Copper Canyon Press, 2001); FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE MONKEY GOD (Spuyten Duyvil); TALES OF MURASAKI AND OTHER POEMS (Sun and Moon Press, 1999), which won the National Poetry Series Award; and PLACES PEOPLE DARE NOT ENTER (Potes and Poets Press, 1991). A bilingual collection of her poetry has been published in Germany by Verlag im Waldgut (translator, Hans Juergen Balmes). She has written the libretto for Ovidiana, an opera based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (composer, Matthew Greenbaum) that has been performed in New York City and Philadelphia. She has collaborated with David Rosenboom on Ah! Opera No-Opera, a pioneering collective work, that's been co-composed and performed by creators from around the globe. Its world premiere was in September 2009 at Redcat in Los Angeles. She was a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy, as well as an American Academy of Poets Award.