Monday, February 7, 2005

What is conceptual writing?

- Kansas City Venues Put Forth Answers

Kansas City's leading arts publication, Review, will feature a special section on conceptual writing in its March 2005 issue. Guest edited by Kansas City writer Debra Di Blasi, the pages will include original text, images, interviews, and dialogs by some of the nation's most prominent innovative writers and publishers like Eduardo Kac who writes living, mutating poetry in genetic code, and collaborators Alexandra Grant and Michael Joyce literally move writing from page to canvas.

Two events will parallel the issue's publication: An exhibition of conceptual writing will open at the Van Ackeren Gallery on the Rockhurst University campus March 4, 5-8 PM. Exhibited works will include original texts and images by the Review contributors, and pages from innovative texts of the past. On April 30, 2 PM, Steve Tomasula will read from his highly acclaimed novel, VAS: An Opera in Flatland, also at Van Ackeren Gallery, followed by a discussion on conceptual writing by visiting writers. Additional conceptual works and information about the writers will be available online at www.jaded_ibis_productions.typepad.com.

Di Blasi, who studied creative writing at University of Missouri-Columbia and San Francisco State University and took a degree in painting from Kansas City Art Institute in the 1980s, feels conceptual writing is likely to find a more sympathetic audience in the visual arts. "There is a sense of risk-taking and fearless exploration in the visual arts that is sadly lacking in literature today. American fiction, for example, is still closely allied with 19th century naturalism and far less interested in the possibilities of the form than the visual arts. It's increasingly difficult to get published these days if your literary investigations occur far from the mainstream center."

For information on where to obtain a copy of Review, go to www.ereview.org, or call 816-471-2343. For exhibition and reading information, contact Anne Austin Pearce at Rockhurst University, (816) 501-4407.