Q: What is literature?

A: Ezra Pound stated that "Literature is news that STAYS news." Pound's work is a useful place to start. We recommend his ABC of Reading, Guide to Kulchur, and Personae.

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Q: As a novitiate, what works should I read?

A: Along with Pound there are many modern, proto-postmodern, and postmodern writers whose work is worth reading: Gertrude Stein, Louis Zukofsky, W.C. Williams, Amiri Baraka, Paul Celan, Jack Spicer, Susan Howe, bpNichol, Nicole Brossard, Harryette Mullen, and countless others come to mind. The Poems for the Millennium series, edited by Pierre Joris & Jerome Rothenberg, is an excellent place to start. 

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Q: What is the difference between being a writer and an author?

A: In the spirit of Gertrude Stein we like to say that "A writer is one who is writing. A writer is writing. Authors give readings and interviews."

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Cui dono lepidum novum libellum
Arido modo pumice expolitum?

—Catullus · Carmina 1