City Lights Publishers Releases STARS SEEN IN PERSON by John Wieners

John Wieners was on the periphery of many of the twentieth century's most important avant-garde poetry scenes, from Black Mountain and the Boston Renaissance to the New York School and the SF Renaissance. Having achieved cult status among poets, Wieners has also become known for the compelling nature of his journals, a mixture of early drafts of poems, prose fragments, lists, and other fascinating minutiae of the poet's imagination.

Seen in Person collects four of John Wieners' previously unpublished journals. The first journal depicts a young, openly gay, self-described "would-be poet" dashing around bohemian Boston with writer and artist friends, pre-drugs and pre-fame. By the last book, decimated by repeated institutionalization (the first for drug-related psychosis, the rest the consequence of the first) and personal tragedies, Wieners is broken down and in great pain, but still writing honestly and with detail about the life he's left with. These journals capture a post-war bohemian world that no longer exists, depicted through the prism of Wieners' sense of glamour. Released simaltaneously with Supplication: Selected Poetry of John Wieners, published by Wave Books.

Join City Lights and Wave Books as we celebrate the life and work of John Wieners:

* Wednesday, October 21 at 6:00pm, Cambridge, MA

Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University's Lamont Library - Robert Dewhurst, Ammiel Alcalay, Jim Dunn, Raymond Foye, Fanny Howe, Gerrit Lansing, and Anne Waldman

* Thursday, October 22 at 7:00pm, New York, NY

Poets House - Joshua Beckman, Raymond Foye, Fanny Howe, Rachel Levitsky, Hoa Nguyen, Cedar Sigo, Lewis Warsh, and others.

ISBN 9780872866683

$16.95 ·Trade Paper
Buy it for 30% off at www.citylights.com