Baby

Carla Harryman’s latest challenge to the separation of literary genres features the sensual world and critical perspectives of a maverick baby, who enters the book as "fire in the womb with a skirt." Yet the baby of Baby is also a word whose function is and must be as pliable as a new gender. One wouldn't want to pin baby down, for, as a representative and cognoscenti of interpenetrated past, presents, and futures, Baby keeps open the capacity for revision. Harryman, a native of California, is identified with the formation of the Bay Area language school of the 1970s and is widely acknowledged as an innovator in poetry, prose, and interdisciplinary performance works. Her work often addresses perspectives and politics of childhood. A 2004 recipient of the award in poetry from The Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts, she is the author of twelve books, including, most recently, Gardener of Stars, an experimental novel (Atelos, 2001). "Carla Harryman is a great wide-awake visionary — reading her is like playing Olympic ping-pong in eight dimensions!" (Robert Gluck). She currently lives in the Detroit Metro Area and is on the English faculty of Wayne State University in Detroit.