IS Several forms of language - poetry, prose, dialogue, essay, opera - take shape in Is. Once we use language with imagination, the definitions/constrictions of traditional form fall away. All writing = all writing. The Chaos Theory of Literary Composition puts it this way: art is energy. To achieve chaos, which releases energy, the writer subjects the writing to heat {in the Chaos Theory of physics, that heat is literal, i.e. fire), i.e., passion, intuition, defamilarization, disruption of syntax, style, genre, spontaneity, the unreal, the unexpected, etc. etc. etc. That state of chaos reveals new form, that chaos opens fissures along which the energy travels and along which the reader engages that energy. IS, putatively the passive verb, includes in it all that is, all the energy we, as artists, bring to the work. Yet, IS, as what we call the passive verb, is a fiction. Like zero in mathematics, the "is" in our work, in the title to this book, isness, does not exist in the real world, but it functions to make everything else work. There is no object - no noun - no thing - that does nothing, that is not an action. Action = energy. Art is energy. The title IS references this nothing which is not, and this - every word - every world - every thing which is, the action inherent in being, including the heat that creates chaos that reveals new form.
About the Author: Winner of a Gertrude Stein Award in Poetry, Finalist for the America's Award in Fiction (for The Library of Thomas Rivka), finalist in the New American Poetry Series (Tautological Eye), finalist in the Ronald Sukenick Award in Fiction (A History of Zero & Alter Fictions), Martin Nakell has published 14 books of poetry and fiction. Nakell has collaborated with other artists, including a book and performance collaboration with the photographer JoAnn Callis, an art show catalogue with Deanne Belinoff, a musical/poetry composition with Sean Naidoo and Brandon Stuhl, a cover art/poetry project with the artist Steve Roden, a screenplay based on his short stories with Matthew Simmons, and a screenplay based on one of his novels with Derrick Wibben. Mr. Nakell, who earned an MA in English at San Francisco State (under Robert Creeley & Mark Linenthal) and a Doctorate of Arts from the State University of New York at Albany, (under William Dumbleton and Eugene Garber) is Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at Chapman University, and has been Visiting Professor in Creative Writing at the University of California at San Diego. He is the co-founding Director of Ischia Arts: The Program in Creative Writing. He serves on the national board of &NOW, and was the Co-Director of &NOW '08. He serves regularly on the panel for The Americas Award in Belle Lettres. Mr. Nakell has held fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Blue Mountain Center, the Gell Writers Center, State University of New York at Albany; he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, from Chapman University, and from the University of California. Mr. Nakell has given many readings of his work at such venues as the École Normale Supérieur (&NOW Paris), New York University, the University of Notre Dame, Oxford University, City Lights Books, Shakespeare & Co. (Paris) Barbara's Books (Chicago), the AWP Conference (Chicago & Boston), the Graduate School of the Chicago Arts Institute, Elliot Bay Books (Seattle), the University of Maine, Sub-voicity (London), The Arts Lab (London), the Trojan Horse (Tel Aviv), etc.