Leslie Scalapino was born in Santa Barbara, California, in 1944 to singer Dee Jessen and political science professor Robert Scalapino, founder of UC Berkeley's Institute for Asian Studies. Because of her father's academic focus in the politics of Asia, Scalapino traveled thoughout Asia, Africa, and Europe at an early age. Her later work reflects some influence from these travels including meditation on Zen writing and Tibetan philosophy. In the 1960s, she attended Reed College, graduating in 1966. Her graduate studies in writing continued at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a M.A. in English (1969), after which she began to focus on writing poetry.Her poetry has been widely anthologized.
Poetry
O and Other Poems, Sand Dollar Press, 1976
The Woman who Could Read the Minds of Dogs, Sand Dollar Press, 1976
Instead of an Animal, Cloud Marauder Press, 1978
This eating and walking is associated all right, Tombouctou, 1979
Considering how exaggerated music is, North Point Press, 1982
that they were at the beach — aeolotropic series, North Point Press, 1985
way, North Point Press, 1988
Crowd and not evening or light, O Books, 1992
Sight (with Lyn Hejinian), Edge Books, 1999
New Time, Wesleyan University Press, 1999
The Tango, (with Marina Adams), Granary Press, 2001
Day Ocean State of Stars' Night: Poems & Writings 1989 & 1999-2006, Green Integer (E-L-E-PHANT Series), 2007
It's go in horizontal, Selected Poems 1974-2006, UC Press, Berkeley, 2008
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Fiction
The Return of Painting, DIA Foundation, 1990
The Return of Painting, The Pearl, and Orion : A Trilogy, North Point, 1991; Talisman, 1997
Defoe, Sun & Moon Press, 1995
The Front Matter, Dead Souls, Wesleyan University Press, 1996
Orchid Jetsam, Tuumba, 2001
Dahlia's Iris — Secret Autobiography and Fiction, FC2, November 2003
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Inter-genre writings
The Public World / Syntactically Impermanence, Wesleyan University Press, 1999
How Phenomena Appear To Unfold , Potes & Poets Press, 1991
Objects in the Terrifying Tense / Longing from Taking Place, Roof Books, 1994
Green and Black, Selected Writings , Talisman Publishers, 1996
R-hu, Atelos Press, 2000
Zither and Autobiography, Wesleyan, 2003
Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows, Starcherone Books, 2010
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Plays
Goya's L.A., a play, Potes & Poets Press, 1994 (music by Larry Ochs)
Stone Marmalade (the Dreamed Title), (with Kevin Killian) Singing Horse Press, 1996
The Weatherman Turns Himself In, Zasterle Press, Spain 1999
http://www.obooks.com/index.htm
As I began reading Scalapino’s work, I was immediately reminded on William Carlos William’s work. Both writers seem to be concerned with subjectivity, nature, and the world we have built for ourselves passed nature. The difference to me between these two writers who were and are both extremely concerned with language was that Scalapino seemed to talk more directly about the issues that concerned her as apposed to Williams who I found quite cryptic in his poetry. Her play with words “standing or curling rose — is not — rose (they rose)” challenged language while still making it beautiful. As I was reading these words it rolled off my tongue well at some points, but at other I was forced to stop. This to me was completely intentional by Scalipino. Her dashes and line breaks felt as though they were thought out extremely well and purposeful. It appeared to me as though there were more question marks than periods, this was a particularly interesting thing to do when writing such opinionated work, and this might even be why I felt as though her work was straightforward. This technique made me feel as though I was experiencing the mental and philosophical process she went through in order to write these things, she made the reader question herself and the world around her in a very effective way.
The photographs did something exciting in her work, I did not feel as though her words were the narrative to the picture’s story, but rather the photographs were happening in the same moment as the words, the words were the perfect “hum in language” for what was going on underneath the visuals.
The Forest is in the Euphrates River, differs from Excerpts from Tango in style. I felt much more comfortable reading The Forest is in the Euphrates. First there was poetry that used white space between words followed by a few lines of pros. The prose didn’t necessarily ground me in my understanding of the work but it grounded me aesthetically, which I found very comforting visually. Overall I think Scalipino makes the reader question the world around her, by forcing her to ask these questions with her in her poetry.
