In the Here There
(Notes to a Poetry Syllabus)
Selected Essays/Reviews & Interviews 2014-2023
Chris Stroffolino

ISBN ​978-1-963908-15-2       418 pages         $28.00

From The Introduction 

In a recent essay, “The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket,” Tajia Issen writes: “Rarely do I buy a book because I was seduced by the summary on the back or inside flap…” I share Issen’s skepticism towards book jacket copy, but my attitude is slightly different. I try to read the book first, and when I’m finished reading it once, allow myself to read the blurbs and reviews to see what others say, and then go back to my reading, feeling alive in the ensemble of a plurality of exteriorized voices with different emphases of the same book. I thus believe the reader here could find it more useful if they read the books discussed before they read my essays about them.”

Writers Discussed

Joanna Fuhrman 
Anne Boyer 
Brenda Hillman 
Maw Shein Win 
Anselm Berrigan 
Mary Dacorro 
Danez Smith 
Alli Warren 
Adeena Karasick 
Tureeda Mikell 
Phillis Wheatley
Emily Dickinson 
Gil Scott-Heron 

David Berman 
Gillian Conoley 
Krysia Jopek 
ko ko thett 
Sandra Simonds 
Delia Tramontina 
Danielle Pafunda 
Alissa Quart 
Judy Juanita 
Daniel Nester 
Ming Di 
Xu Lizhi 
Martine Bellen

Chris Stroffolino has published 6 books of poetry, most of which are out of print, including Speculative Primitive (2005), Stealer’s Wheel (1999), and Light as A Fetter (1997). Most recently, Crisis Chronicles published Drinking from What I Once Wore (2018). A book of prose reminiscences at the intersection of the personal and cultural, Death of a Selfish Altruist, was published by Iniquity Press in 2017. Radio Survivor.org published his history of the corporate takeover of radio, Radio Orphan, in sequential form, in 2012. He co-authored a study of Shakespeare’s 12th Night with David Rosenthal (IDG Books, 2001). Spuyten Duyvil has also published an earlier collection of essays on mostly contemporary poetry, Spin Cycle (2001), a prequel to this book. 

He has released 4 albums of songs under his own name, including Single-Sided Doubles (2009), Predator Drone (2011), The Griffith Park Sessions (2014), and 12 Songs of Goodbye, and 1 Song of Hello. (2019). Recent poetry has appeared in New American Writing, 14 Hills, Bennington Review, Volt, Konch, Chiron Review, Big Hammer, and The Town: An Anthology of Oakland Poets (Nomadic Press, 2023). He is currently seeking a publisher for Medi(t)ations, his first full length book of new poetry in 20 years. He has taught Critical Thinking, and, sometimes, Creative Writing, at Laney College in Oakland since 2008, where he lives in a closet with no heat but a piano in a hallway.