Poetics ""At""

Founded in 1993 at the State University of New York at Buffalo by poet-critic Bernstein (My Way; Controlling Interest; etc.), the Poetics e-mail discussion group has evolved into a forum in which more than 700 subscribers now regularly tune in, turn on and flame away--and have some of the liveliest discussions about poetry around. (The list remains private but is archived at http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc.) Poet, list member and former moderator Kuszai has distilled several ""threads""--discussions centering around a particular subject--that were taken up mainly in the list's early years. In a move that feels idiosyncratic, Kuszai has not been comprehensive in terms of either representing the list in its dailiness (with the inevitable digressions, distortions and complaints) or including everyone who weighed in on a particular subject. Neither does he introduce the uninitiated to the issues at stake or the cast of characters he does include. This will severely limit the usefulness of the book to those unfamiliar with writers such as Dodie Bellamy, Maria Damon, Steve Evans, Benjamin Friedlander, Jed Rasula, Susan Schultz, Juliana Spahr, Keith Tuma and Mark Wallace, although Robert Creeley, Marjorie Perloff and Bernstein himself, along with his fellow language poets, do frequently check in. That said, the discussions of ""The Social Poem,"" of the controversy surrounding the lit-mag Apex of the M and of gender in poetry and criticism, among others, are more exciting and brimming with ideas than almost any journalism or academic criticism. This collection will reward those readers diligent enough to meander among unfamiliar companions and notions, and makes a handy compendium of some of the more substantive goings-on for those in the know. (Dec.)