David Antin was born in New York City in 1932. He earned an MA in linguistics at City College of New York, where he studied the work of Gertrude Stein, a poet whose avant-garde aesthetic and interest in art would influence his own work. A poet, artist, and critic, Antin is associated with a group of artists and poets who brought new definitions and ambitions to poetry in the early 1970’s. Antin is associated with Jerome Rothenberg and Charles Bernstein, who collaborated with Antin on the book A Conversation with David Antin (2001). Antin’s work in postmodern forms of art and writing led him, in the ‘70s, to “talk poems,” a hybrid of criticism, poetry, and storytelling that involves Antin discoursing freely on a subject in front of an audience. Some of Antin’s most famous works, including Talking (1972), Talking at the Boundaries (1976), and What it Means to be Avant-Garde (1993) were composed this way.
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