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Joshua Beckman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He is the author of many books, including Animal Days (Wave, 2021), The Lives of the Poems and Three Talks (Wave Books, 2018), The Inside of an Apple, Take It, Shake, Your Time Has Come, and two collaborations with Matthew Rohrer: Nice Hat. Thanks. and Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He is editor-in-chief at Wave Books and has translated numerous works of poetry and prose, including Micrograms, by Jorge Carrera Andrade, 5 Meters of Poems (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010) by Carlos Oquendo de Amat, and Poker (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2004) by Tomaž Šalamun, which was a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Award. He also co-edited Supplication: Selected Poems of John Wieners (Wave Books, 2015).
(Author photo by Christopher Franko) -
Reviews
Beckman wistfully takes to the road and does the incredible work of writing poems full of desire, for a world in the midst of radical upheaval.
Publishers Weekly
If you take a broad squint at our nation’s new poets you can find two general strategies: poets who are carrying the torch, and poets who are using it to start fires. And then we have Joshua Beckman. He seems to be doing everything.
Daniel Handler, The Believer
Beckman’s soulful theatrics...have taken the humorous lyric to new heights, but perhaps less readily appreciated is Beckman’s mastery, not just of the quotidian, but of the tragic.
Virginia Konchan, Rattle
Reviews of books by Joshua Beckman
Animal Days
"The Lives of the Poems and 3 Talks
The Inside of an Apple
Micrograms
Take It
Gentle Reader
Shake
Your Time Has Come
Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty
Nice Hat. Thanks.
Something I Expected to be Different
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- Check out Joshua Beckman's limited edition books with The Brother in Elysium
Poems
- Excerpts from Your Time Has Come (in The Daily Beast)
- Poetry Mixtape (in KCRW)
- “the going. the letters. the staying.” (in Poetrying)
- “About the days” (in Bold Type)
- Two Sonnets (in Now Culture)
- A poem from Your Time Has Come (in La Petite Zine)
- “[Lying in bed I think about you]” (in Poetry)
- Two poems (in Jubilat)
Interviews
- Library of Congress, with Caitlin Rizzo
- Bomb Magazine, with Susie DeFord
- The Brooklyn Rail, with Erika Anderson
Translations
- Four poems from Micrograms (in Loaded Bicycle)
On collaborations with Matthew Rohrer
- Jordan Davis, The Village Voice
- Nina MacLaughin, The Boston Pheonix
- Interview with Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer in Painted Bride Quarterly -
Audio
- Joshua Beckman’s lectures for the Bagley Wright Lecture Series
- A recording of Joshua Beckman's book making tutorial for the Henry Art Gallery's Shelf Life residency at Hankblog
- Matthew Rohrer and Joshua Beckman's collaborative reading at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, Spring 2010
Video
Reading his Mechanical Poems at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College:
Reading at Machine Project in Los Angeles, April 23, 2009:
Reading "The Karate Chop of Love":
Reading Frank O'Hara on the Poetry Bus Tour:
