BARD COLLEGE'S LITERARY JOURNAL CONJUNCTIONS CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY February 21 Program Features Master of Ceremonies Mary Caponegro and Readings by John Ashbery, Martine Bellen, Robert Kelly, Ann Lauterbach, Norman Manea, Bradford Morrow, and Willi
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-The acclaimed literary journal Conjunctions will mark its 20th anniversary with a celebration on Thursday, February 21, at 7:00 p.m. at Bard College's Olin Auditorium. The celebration features Master of Ceremonies Mary Caponegro presiding over readings by such celebrated authors as John Ashbery, Martine Bellen, Robert Kelly, Ann Lauterbach, Norman Manea, Bradford Morrow, and William Weaver. Admission is free. For further information, call 845-758-6822.
Conjunctions,
edited from its beginning by novelist Bradford Morrow, was launched in 1981 and has been published since 1990 by Bard College, where Morrow is a faculty member. From its first issue?a 304-page homage to James Laughlin, whose New Directions publishing house introduced many of the great modernists to American readers?to the current anniversary issue, number 37, Conjunctions has been at the forefront of literary adventure, publishing new and innovative works by emerging and established writers alike.Conjunctions
has published work by more than 800 writers since 1981, several of whom made their first appearances in print in its pages. Among the journal?s contributors have been Chinua Achebe, Kathy Acker, John Ashbery, Paul Auster, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Russell Banks, John Barth, William S. Burroughs, Angela Carter, Sandra Cisneros, Jim Crace, Robert Creeley, Edwidge Danticat, Jeffrey Eugenides, Rosario Ferré, Jonathan Franzen, William H. Gass, Jessica Hagedorn, John Hawkes, Jorie Graham, Robert Kelly, Michael Ondaatje, Ben Okri, Richard Powers, Salman Rushdie, John Sayles, Joanna Scott, Leslie Marmon Silko, Susan Sontag, Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, William T. Vollmann, David Foster Wallace, Paul West, Edmund White, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and far too many others to list. In addition to bringing the best of contemporary literature to its readers, Conjunctions has also published early, previously unpublished works by such noted authors as Anna Akhmatova, Djuna Barnes, Thomas Bernhard, Truman Capote, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Yasunari Kawabata, and Vladimir Nabokov.According to renowned author William H. Gass, Conjunctions has maintained an unmatched standard of excellence. "The quality is there, spread over the pages of every issue, for anyone to read: youthful voices and hoarse ones like mine, literally conveyed from the lands of the unlikely, manuscripts rescued from some purgatorial past, real writers recognized and fished out of the stream," writes Gass, giving Morrow high praise for his efforts in sustaining Conjunctions. "Brad has built for serious writers a raft where we can thirst and cling and curse like survivors from the shipwreck of our culture."
When Bard College considered taking over publication of Conjunctions more than a decade ago, "We agreed that the purpose of having a major literary publication at Bard went well beyond symbolism and appearances," recalls Bard College President Leon Botstein. "In retrospect," he adds, "there is little doubt that we made the right decision. Conjunctions has been a wonderful partner . . . it is an association we cherish and we believe to be an integral part of the College?s intellectual and artistic life."
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