fbpx
Wikipedia

David Bromige

March 14, 2023

David Mansfield Bromige (October 22, 1933 – June 3, 2009) was a Canadian-American poet who resided in northern California from 1962 onward. Bromige published thirty books, many so different from one another as to appear to be the work of a different author.[citation needed] Associated in his youth with the New American Poetry and especially with Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley, Bromige is sometimes associated with the language poets, but this connection is based more on his close friendships with some of those poets, and their admiration for his work. It is difficult to fit Bromige into a slot.[who?] He departs from language poetry in the thematic unity of many of his poems, in the uses to which he puts found materials, with the romantic aspect of his lyricism, and with the sheer variety of his approaches to the poem.

David Bromige
David Bromige, c. 1986; photograph by Christopher Bromige
BornOctober 22, 1933 (1933-10-22)
London, England
DiedJune 3, 2009(2009-06-03) (aged 75)
Sebastopol, California
Occupation(s)Poet, professor

Early life

Bromige was born in London, England. At an early age, he showed signs of being tubercular and was sent to an isolation hospital, but after four months, his condition improved, and he was discharged. That hospital was the first of four crucial interludes, which molded his adult life. The second of these interludes came during the London Blitz. A stick of bombs falling in their customary sequence appeared likely to destroy the Bromiges’ house, with them inside. The next interlude involves his schooling and work experience. When the war ended, Bromige won a scholarship to Haberdashers' Aske's Hampstead School and a chance to study at a socially superior school. After completing his School Certificate, Bromige accepted an offer to be a dairyman on a farm in southern Sweden. Each of these interludes changed him. The first made him suspicious of his family; the bombing made him vow to be someone else; work and study gave him the worldly experience to be a poet.

Becoming a poet

He met other poets at the University of British Columbia such as George Bowering, Fred Wah, Frank Davey, David Dawson, and Jamie Reid, and they encouraged him to write and publish his work. At the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Festival Bromige met Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, and Robert Duncan.

The result of this endeavor led to the publication of many poems. Robert Hass, the chairman of the Western States Book Award Committee, wrote glowingly of his work and chose his 1988 book, Desire: Selected Poems, 1963-1987 to win the first prize for poetry. He has twice been honored by the Poetry Foundation, once with a $3,000 and again with a $10,000 prize. And he has twice been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts. He won the college prize for the first poem he ever published.

Three years later, Bromige won a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship. The rules stated that he had to do his graduate work at a different university. In 1962, he chose the University of California at Berkeley after graduating from the University of British Columbia. At UC-Berkeley, Bromige studied with Frederick Crews, Stephen Booth, and Thomas Parkinson. Living in the Bay Area also brought him into contact with a younger generation of American poets, including Ron Loewinsohn, Michael Palmer, Ron Silliman, David Melnick, Kathleen Fraser, Kenneth Irby, Rae Armantrout, Bob Perelman, Harvey Bialy, Robert Grenier, Stephen Ratcliffe, Pat Nolan, Alistair Johnson and more.

In 1968, his third book, The Ends of the Earth, was published by Black Sparrow Press. It was the beginning of a twenty-three-year partnership that produced eleven of his books. The poems in this book have a ghostly tone. It is as though Cocteau was doing a very detailed description of Bromige's life. The change apparent in his fifth book, Threads, is startling. It reads as though the ghostly presences from The Ends of the Earth had fleshed out and learned to speak a language from the various lives whose talk fills the book.

Academic career

Leaving UC-Berkeley A.B.D., (All but dissertation), Bromige took a teaching position in the English Department at Sonoma State University in 1970. Then came seven books in two years. This is Bromige at an early peak. Ten Years in the Making began it. This book consisted of some of his early work, going back to 1960, work engagingly open to the merest reader. Then come selections from The Gathering, followed by poems from Threads. Next came Birds of the West, from Victor Coleman of Coachhouse Press in Toronto. This book consists of three sections: a journal of gardening and visitors; a section of more finished poems, filled with a landscape of Western Sonoma County; and a single, long poem written in sparse triplets to reflect a white-tail kite's hovering flight.

Soon afterwards, Tight Corners and What’s Around Them was issued by Black Sparrow. Bromige has stated it was the most interesting to him of this clutch of books. "I was using a fairly familiar sort of sentence, in prose, with a last line that either boosted sales or fell flat as a flapjack. I didn’t care. Banal or brilliant, it made no difference in the world I was living in. Besides, sometimes the banal turned brilliant as I listened."

He also did three pint-sized books about this time for the "Sparrow" series. In 1974, he also published a book of occasional poems, Spells and Blessings.

Bromige continued to publish prodigiously in magazines and, in 1980, published a book called My Poetry.

The 1980s started with a Pushcart Prize for My Poetry and ended with the Western States Poetry Award for his selected poems, Desire. In between, Bromige devoted himself to his wife and young daughter while carrying a full-time professor's responsibilities in the English Department at Sonoma State University. He coordinated poetry conferences at SSU, published a collaboration with Opal Nations, wrote an analysis of Allen Fisher's four-day residency at Langton Street in San Francisco, and was himself the subject of an issue of Tom Beckett's The Difficulties. In 1990, John Martin, who had moved Black Sparrow Press to Santa Rosa, published Men, Women & Vehicles, a book of selected prose.

Bromige retired early from Sonoma State University in 1993, and he continued to publish and give readings. Tiny Courts in a World Without Scales, Brick Books, is a book of fifty short poems, showing Bromige at his droll and sarcastic best. He had fun with They Ate, a cut up from a turn-of-the-century detective novel, before producing A Cast of Tens (Avec Press). Each stanza has 10 lines but in each poem is distributed variously. The Harbormaster of Hong Kong (Sun and Moon) came next with many kinds of writing in it including a perfect sonnet. Bromige's final book from the 90's was Vulnerable Bundles, a limited edition of thirty, from Potes and Poets Press.

Missing teaching, Bromige returned to it part-time at the University of San Francisco, and he also began writing what would later be As in T as in Tether, which was awarded A Best Book of the Year (2003) recognition from Small Press Traffic. Bromige published Indictable Suborners and Behave or Be Bounced with dPress, Sebastopol, in 2003. For the past few years, Bromige had been collaborating with poet and dPress editor Richard Denner on 100 Cantos. Spade: Cantos 1-33 was published in 2006.

Bromige lived in Sebastopol, California. He died on June 3, 2009 of complications from diabetes.[1]

Bibliography

  • The Gathering. Buffalo, NY: Sumbooks, 1965.
  • Please, Like Me. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
  • The Ends of the Earth. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
  • The Quivering Roadway. Berkeley, CA: Archangel Press, 1969.
  • Threads. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1970.
  • Three Stories. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1973.
  • Ten Years in the Making. Vancouver, BC: New Star Press, 1974.
  • Tight Corners & What's Around Them. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1974.
  • Birds of the West. Toronto, Ontario: Coach House Books, 1974.
  • Out of My Hands. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1974.
  • Spells & Blessings. Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks, 1975.
  • Credences of Winter. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1976.
  • Living in Advance (with deBarros and Gifford). Cotati, CA: Open Ready Press, 1976.
  • My Poetry. Berkeley, CA: The Figures Press, 1980.
  • P-E-A-C-E. Berkeley, CA: Tuumba Press, 1981.
  • In the Uneven Steps of Hung Chow. Berkeley, CA: Little Dinosaur Press, 1982.
  • It's the Same Only Different/The Melancholy Owed Categories. Weymouth, England: Last Straw Press, 1984.
  • You See, Parts 1 & 2 (with Opal Nations). San Francisco, CA: Exempli Gratia Press, 1986.
  • Red Hats. Atwater, OH: Tonsure Press, 1986.
  • Desire: Selected Poems 1963-1987. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1988.
  • Men, Women & Vehicles: Prose Works. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1990.
  • Tiny Courts in a Year Without Scales. London, ON: Brick Books 1991.
  • They Ate. Sebastopol, CA: X-Press Books, 1992.
  • The Harbormaster of Hong Kong. Los Angeles, CA: Sun & Moon Press, 1993.
  • A Cast of Tens. Penngrove, CA: Avec Books, 1994.
  • Vulnerable Bundles. Hartford, CT: Cricket Press, 1995.
  • From the First Century. 1995.
  • Piccolo Mondo. Toronto, Ontario: Coach House Books, 1998.
  • Authenticizing. San Francisco, CA: a+bend press, 2000.
  • As in T, As in Tether. Tucson, AZ: Chax Press, 2002.
  • Indictable Suborners. Sebastopol, CA: DPress 2003.
  • Behave or Be Bounced. Sebastopol, CA: dPress, 2003.
  • Ten Poems from Clearings in the Throat. Sebastopol, CA dPress, 2005.
  • Spade (with Richard Denner). Sebastopol, CA: dPress, 2006.
  • if wants to be the same as is: Essential Poems of David Bromige, edited by Jack Krick, Bob Perelman and Ron Silliman, with an introduction by George Bowering, Vancouver, BC: NewStar Books, 2018.

References

  1. ^ Funeral notice, pressdemocrat.com - Retrieved on 13 June 2009.

External links

  • Works by or about David Bromige in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  • David Bromige page at the Electronic Poetry Center
  • David Bromige page at the University of Calgary
  • An Interview with David Bromige
  • PennSound has numerous audio recordings of David Bromige reading his poems
  • David Bromige 1933 - 2009 This "cyber-tombeau" at Silliman's Blog by poet Ron Silliman includes comments, tributes, and links
  • David Bromige Correspondence MSS 6. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.

March 14, 2023
david, bromige, david, mansfield, bromige, october, 1933, june, 2009, canadian, american, poet, resided, northern, california, from, 1962, onward, bromige, published, thirty, books, many, different, from, another, appear, work, different, author, citation, nee. David Mansfield Bromige October 22 1933 June 3 2009 was a Canadian American poet who resided in northern California from 1962 onward Bromige published thirty books many so different from one another as to appear to be the work of a different author citation needed Associated in his youth with the New American Poetry and especially with Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley Bromige is sometimes associated with the language poets but this connection is based more on his close friendships with some of those poets and their admiration for his work It is difficult to fit Bromige into a slot who He departs from language poetry in the thematic unity of many of his poems in the uses to which he puts found materials with the romantic aspect of his lyricism and with the sheer variety of his approaches to the poem David BromigeDavid Bromige c 1986 photograph by Christopher BromigeBornOctober 22 1933 1933 10 22 London EnglandDiedJune 3 2009 2009 06 03 aged 75 Sebastopol CaliforniaOccupation s Poet professor Contents 1 Early life 2 Becoming a poet 3 Academic career 4 Bibliography 5 References 6 External linksEarly life EditBromige was born in London England At an early age he showed signs of being tubercular and was sent to an isolation hospital but after four months his condition improved and he was discharged That hospital was the first of four crucial interludes which molded his adult life The second of these interludes came during the London Blitz A stick of bombs falling in their customary sequence appeared likely to destroy the Bromiges house with them inside The next interlude involves his schooling and work experience When the war ended Bromige won a scholarship to Haberdashers Aske s Hampstead School and a chance to study at a socially superior school After completing his School Certificate Bromige accepted an offer to be a dairyman on a farm in southern Sweden Each of these interludes changed him The first made him suspicious of his family the bombing made him vow to be someone else work and study gave him the worldly experience to be a poet Becoming a poet EditHe met other poets at the University of British Columbia such as George Bowering Fred Wah Frank Davey David Dawson and Jamie Reid and they encouraged him to write and publish his work At the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Festival Bromige met Robert Creeley Charles Olson Denise Levertov Allen Ginsberg and Robert Duncan The result of this endeavor led to the publication of many poems Robert Hass the chairman of the Western States Book Award Committee wrote glowingly of his work and chose his 1988 book Desire Selected Poems 1963 1987 to win the first prize for poetry He has twice been honored by the Poetry Foundation once with a 3 000 and again with a 10 000 prize And he has twice been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts He won the college prize for the first poem he ever published Three years later Bromige won a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship The rules stated that he had to do his graduate work at a different university In 1962 he chose the University of California at Berkeley after graduating from the University of British Columbia At UC Berkeley Bromige studied with Frederick Crews Stephen Booth and Thomas Parkinson Living in the Bay Area also brought him into contact with a younger generation of American poets including Ron Loewinsohn Michael Palmer Ron Silliman David Melnick Kathleen Fraser Kenneth Irby Rae Armantrout Bob Perelman Harvey Bialy Robert Grenier Stephen Ratcliffe Pat Nolan Alistair Johnson and more In 1968 his third book The Ends of the Earth was published by Black Sparrow Press It was the beginning of a twenty three year partnership that produced eleven of his books The poems in this book have a ghostly tone It is as though Cocteau was doing a very detailed description of Bromige s life The change apparent in his fifth book Threads is startling It reads as though the ghostly presences from The Ends of the Earth had fleshed out and learned to speak a language from the various lives whose talk fills the book Academic career EditLeaving UC Berkeley A B D All but dissertation Bromige took a teaching position in the English Department at Sonoma State University in 1970 Then came seven books in two years This is Bromige at an early peak Ten Years in the Making began it This book consisted of some of his early work going back to 1960 work engagingly open to the merest reader Then come selections from The Gathering followed by poems from Threads Next came Birds of the West from Victor Coleman of Coachhouse Press in Toronto This book consists of three sections a journal of gardening and visitors a section of more finished poems filled with a landscape of Western Sonoma County and a single long poem written in sparse triplets to reflect a white tail kite s hovering flight Soon afterwards Tight Corners and What s Around Them was issued by Black Sparrow Bromige has stated it was the most interesting to him of this clutch of books I was using a fairly familiar sort of sentence in prose with a last line that either boosted sales or fell flat as a flapjack I didn t care Banal or brilliant it made no difference in the world I was living in Besides sometimes the banal turned brilliant as I listened He also did three pint sized books about this time for the Sparrow series In 1974 he also published a book of occasional poems Spells and Blessings Bromige continued to publish prodigiously in magazines and in 1980 published a book called My Poetry The 1980s started with a Pushcart Prize for My Poetry and ended with the Western States Poetry Award for his selected poems Desire In between Bromige devoted himself to his wife and young daughter while carrying a full time professor s responsibilities in the English Department at Sonoma State University He coordinated poetry conferences at SSU published a collaboration with Opal Nations wrote an analysis of Allen Fisher s four day residency at Langton Street in San Francisco and was himself the subject of an issue of Tom Beckett s The Difficulties In 1990 John Martin who had moved Black Sparrow Press to Santa Rosa published Men Women amp Vehicles a book of selected prose Bromige retired early from Sonoma State University in 1993 and he continued to publish and give readings Tiny Courts in a World Without Scales Brick Books is a book of fifty short poems showing Bromige at his droll and sarcastic best He had fun with They Ate a cut up from a turn of the century detective novel before producing A Cast of Tens Avec Press Each stanza has 10 lines but in each poem is distributed variously The Harbormaster of Hong Kong Sun and Moon came next with many kinds of writing in it including a perfect sonnet Bromige s final book from the 90 s was Vulnerable Bundles a limited edition of thirty from Potes and Poets Press Missing teaching Bromige returned to it part time at the University of San Francisco and he also began writing what would later be As in T as in Tether which was awarded A Best Book of the Year 2003 recognition from Small Press Traffic Bromige published Indictable Suborners and Behave or Be Bounced with dPress Sebastopol in 2003 For the past few years Bromige had been collaborating with poet and dPress editor Richard Denner on 100 Cantos Spade Cantos 1 33 was published in 2006 Bromige lived in Sebastopol California He died on June 3 2009 of complications from diabetes 1 Bibliography EditThe Gathering Buffalo NY Sumbooks 1965 Please Like Me Los Angeles CA Black Sparrow Press 1968 The Ends of the Earth Los Angeles CA Black Sparrow Press 1968 The Quivering Roadway Berkeley CA Archangel Press 1969 Threads Los Angeles CA Black Sparrow Press 1970 Three Stories Los Angeles CA Black Sparrow Press 1973 Ten Years in the Making Vancouver BC New Star Press 1974 Tight Corners amp What s Around Them Los Angeles CA Black Sparrow Press 1974 Birds of the West Toronto Ontario Coach House Books 1974 Out of My Hands Santa Barbara CA Black Sparrow Press 1974 Spells amp Blessings Vancouver BC Talonbooks 1975 Credences of Winter Santa Barbara CA Black Sparrow Press 1976 Living in Advance with deBarros and Gifford Cotati CA Open Ready Press 1976 My Poetry Berkeley CA The Figures Press 1980 P E A C E Berkeley CA Tuumba Press 1981 In the Uneven Steps of Hung Chow Berkeley CA Little Dinosaur Press 1982 It s the Same Only Different The Melancholy Owed Categories Weymouth England Last Straw Press 1984 You See Parts 1 amp 2 with Opal Nations San Francisco CA Exempli Gratia Press 1986 Red Hats Atwater OH Tonsure Press 1986 Desire Selected Poems 1963 1987 Santa Rosa CA Black Sparrow Press 1988 Men Women amp Vehicles Prose Works Santa Rosa CA Black Sparrow Press 1990 Tiny Courts in a Year Without Scales London ON Brick Books 1991 They Ate Sebastopol CA X Press Books 1992 The Harbormaster of Hong Kong Los Angeles CA Sun amp Moon Press 1993 A Cast of Tens Penngrove CA Avec Books 1994 Vulnerable Bundles Hartford CT Cricket Press 1995 From the First Century 1995 Piccolo Mondo Toronto Ontario Coach House Books 1998 Authenticizing San Francisco CA a bend press 2000 As in T As in Tether Tucson AZ Chax Press 2002 Indictable Suborners Sebastopol CA DPress 2003 Behave or Be Bounced Sebastopol CA dPress 2003 Ten Poems from Clearings in the Throat Sebastopol CA dPress 2005 Spade with Richard Denner Sebastopol CA dPress 2006 if wants to be the same as is Essential Poems of David Bromige edited by Jack Krick Bob Perelman and Ron Silliman with an introduction by George Bowering Vancouver BC NewStar Books 2018 References Edit Funeral notice pressdemocrat com Retrieved on 13 June 2009 External links EditWorks by or about David Bromige in libraries WorldCat catalog David Bromige page at the Electronic Poetry Center David Bromige page at the University of Calgary An Interview with David Bromige PennSound has numerous audio recordings of David Bromige reading his poems David Bromige 1933 2009 This cyber tombeau at Silliman s Blog by poet Ron Silliman includes comments tributes and links David Bromige Correspondence MSS 6 Special Collections amp Archives UC San Diego Library Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title David Bromige amp oldid 1141043832, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.