This collection contains the most recent poem, Ruinscape, from Rochelle Owens, which was written in 2020, as well as other recent poetry. In addition, it contain examples of her early work, Not Be Essence that Cannot Be (1961). A central figure in the international avant-garde for fifty years, Rochelle Owens is a poet, playwright, translator, and video artist. She has published eighteen books of poetry including Hermaphropoetics, Drifting Geometries (Singing Horse Press, 2017), Out of Ur: New & Selected Poems 1961-2012 (Shearsman Books, 2013), Solitary Workwoman (Junction Press, 2011), and Luca: Discourse on Life and Death (Junction Press, 2001). She is the author of four collections of plays and also edited Spontaneous Combustion: Eight New American Plays. She translated Liliane Atlan's The Passersby. Owens has been a recipient of five Village Voice Obie awards and Honors from the New York Drama Critics Circle. A pioneer in the American experimental theatre, her plays have been presented at Le Festival d'Avignon and the Berlin Theatre Festival. She is widely known as one of the most innovative and controversial writers of this century, whose groundbreaking work has influenced subsequent experimental poets and playwrights.
