Silliman's Blogroll
The blogroll alone could occupy a reader for weeks. It's a long, slowly-unwinding scroll, from the collective project As/Is to Jordanian Sunni Sister Umm Zaid's "blahg blahg blahg." What lies between is a virtual who's who of the post-avant poetry world.
Thoughts on Poetry... and Baseball
Even more expansive are the posts themselves on Silliman's Blog. They consist of lists of books he’s recently received for review, musings on baseball, links lists that read like poems, and critical discussions about poetry where terms like post-avant are coined.
What Is Post-avant?
Post-avant refers to the current experimental scene in poetry, and it is the kind of work that Ron Silliman champions. The category is wide and does not denote a specific style or agenda but rather a commitment to informed experimentation. And it would be impossible to deny Silliman's commitment to poetic innovation.
Poetic Debates
Whether people agree with him or not - his opinions are often hotly debated in the comments section - his breadth of knowledge and his devotion to poetry are impressive. He has written experimental poetry, and written about it, for over forty years. And it shows. His blog is educational, but also fuels discussion and fans the flames of debate within the world of poetry.
Blogging, Experimental Poetry, Computers, and Family
This excitement, as well as the wealth of information and unusually lengthy posts, lures readers and writers to his blog. And this traffic makes Ron Silliman extremely busy. He was already busy, with over thirty books to his name, a full-time job in the computer industry, and a family. Add to that his online literary project, which has taken on near-encyclopedic proportions, and his schedule is bafflingly booked.
Avant-garde Writing Whether He Admits It or Not
Silliman's approach to poetry, however, is leisurely yet serious. He operates under the assumption that he is not "experimental" even as he actively explores new ways of writing. In the blog's very first post back in August 2002, he claims, "I have never thought of myself as an experimental writer, but this project is clearly a step into un- (or at least under-)charted territory."
Poetry and Computers
This freewheeling approach to an intellectual pursuit could well be due to the fact that he has remained outside of academia. Ron Silliman’s blogging is an extension of his profound engagement with poetry and his “other career” in computers. At a time when the word was not yet in the dictionary, his blog helped usher experimental writing onto the World Wide scene.
That's Not All
Six years into it, he’s likely just begun; Silliman is a writer known for grand-scale projects such as The Alphabet, which he wrote from 1979 to 2004. If his poetry is any indication, his blog is a long-term project to explore language, meaning, art and life.
