Spin Cycle

Spin Cycle: Selected Essays and Reviews 1989-2001, the first prose collection from poet Chris Stroffolino (Stealer's Wheel), eschews literary criticism as a method of canonization or categorization and argues against theory-based dissections of texts, preferring a kind of generative criticism that, in his own introductory words, might ""further the discussion of contemporary poetry and its relation to culture."" Thus it makes sense that he discusses, in 23 essays, everyone from James Tate and John Yau to Erica Hunt, John Godfrey, Jennifer Moxley and Barrett Watten writers who choose to explore and explode the boundaries of and between genre, narrative, identity and social critique. Stroffolino is suspicious of the notion of literary lineage, believing it to be a heavy handed method of academic and avant-garde side-choosing. He portrays ideas of writing and, just as crucially, living with writing as a series of examinable choices. (Oct.)