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| Kenneth Goldsmith | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kenneth Goldsmith |
| Birth date | 1961 |
| Birth place | Freeport, New York |
| Occupation | Poet, Essayist, Curator, Professor |
| Notable works | Day, Traffic, The Weather, Uncreative Writing |
Kenneth Goldsmith is an American poet, critic, and proponent of conceptual writing known for works that appropriate, transcribe, and recontextualize existing texts. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s and 2000s through books, performances, and editorships that challenged conventional notions of authorship, originality, and literary labor. His practice and writings have provoked debate across literary, artistic, and academic communities.
Born in Freeport, New York, Goldsmith studied at State University of New York at Albany and later attended the University of Pennsylvania for graduate work. During his formative years he was influenced by figures associated with the Fluxus movement, the work of Jackson Mac Low, and the conceptual art practices of Sol LeWitt. Early exposure to the archives of The New York Public Library and the small press culture tied to City Lights Booksellers & Publishers and Sun & Moon Press shaped his engagement with experimental writing communities.
Goldsmith co-founded the online literary project UbuWeb, collaborating with Kenneth Goldsmith-adjacent avant-garde networks and contributors from Concrete poetry and Sound poetry traditions. He served as editor of the journal '' and later became director of the Poetry Collection at a major university library. Major books include Day, a transcription of a single day of The New York Times; Traffic, based on Traffic reports and radio broadcasts; and The Weather, a page-for-page retyping of a year of The New York Times weather pages. His anthology Uncreative Writing'' collects essays and manifestos by practitioners including Marjorie Perloff, Charles Bernstein, Susan Howe, John Ashbery, and Lyn Hejinian. He has collaborated with artists such as Lawrence Weiner, On Kawara, and musicians from the No Wave and Noise music scenes.
Goldsmith is associated with conceptual writing, a strand related to Conceptual art and developments by writers like Bernadette Mayer and Ron Silliman. His methods prioritize appropriation, transcription, and procedural constraints, drawing on precedents from Marcel Duchamp, William S. Burroughs (cut-up technique), and Sol LeWitt's instructional aesthetics. Key works exemplify strategies of erasure, found text, and transcription, engaging with the textual archives of institutions such as The New York Times, Library of Congress, and National Archives and Records Administration. The theoretical framing of his practice intersects with scholarship by Craig Dworkin, Cory Arcangel, and Terry Eagleton while provoking debate in forums like The Paris Review and panels at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern.
Goldsmith's projects have generated significant controversy, notably a reading in which he presented as his own the diary of Michael Brown and public transcriptions of Walter Benjamin and Susan Sontag materials, prompting responses from critics such as Maggie Nelson, Eileen Myles, Junot Díaz, and Elena Ferrante-related commentators. Accusations of ethical insensitivity and debates over appropriation, plagiarism, and cultural context involved interventions from academics at Harvard University, Brown University, and Columbia University. High-profile critiques appeared in outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and The Guardian, while defenders cited theoretical lineage from Duchamp and John Cage and support from artists affiliated with The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and The Walker Art Center.
Goldsmith has held faculty and visiting positions at institutions such as Brown University, Pratt Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania, directing programs and seminars on avant-garde poetics, appropriation, and archival practice. He curated exhibitions and performances at venues including The Museum of Modern Art, Queens Museum, and The Whitney Museum of American Art, bringing together practitioners from Fluxus, Language poetry, and contemporary sound art. Through workshops and public lectures at organizations like The Poetry Project and St. Mark's Church, he engaged with younger writers and interdisciplinary artists.
Goldsmith received grants and fellowships from bodies such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and state arts councils. His work has been shortlisted for prizes connected to The Griffin Poetry Prize and acknowledged by critics in lists by The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Institutional recognition includes residencies at The MacDowell Colony and appearances at festivals such as Performa and ROFLCon.
Category:American poets Category:Conceptual artists Category:Contemporary writers