Akilah Oliver

Akilah Oliver is the author of 4 books of poetry: A Toast in the House of Friends (CoffeeHouse, 2009), a(A)ugust (Yo-Yo Labs, 2007), The Putterer’s Notebook (Belladonna, 2006), An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet (Farfalla, 2004). A book of experimental prose poetry the she said dialogues: flesh memory (Smokeproof/Erudite Fangs, 1999) received the PEN American Center’s “Beyond Margins/Open Book” award. She is co-founder of the avant-garde, feminist performance group, The Sacred Naked Nature Girls (SNNG, 1994-1997) whose work is the subject of critical study in performance theory, found in In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art, (Meiling Cheng, Univ. of CA Press, 2002). Charles Bernstein said of A Toast in the House of Friends, “This poetry is a holding space, a folded grace, in which objects held most dear disappear to return as radiant moments of memory’s forgiving home”. Alice Notley comments, “Akilah Oiiver’s book is an extraordinary gift for everyone, pushing beyond itself into the aura of holy graffiti in the big night, unstable shapes that won’t break.” Oliver’s work can be found online at PennSound. She lives in Brooklyn and teaches at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program. Sample online poems by Akilah Oliver can be found at: EOAGH, From "Corruptions" : http://chax.org/eoagh/issue3/issuethr... From "A Putterer's Notebook" at Marsh Hawk Review & also on Napam Health Spa Resort 2008: http://marshhawkreview.blogspot.com/2... & then http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs08... "interview" on The Doll Games at http://ineradicablestain.com/dollgame... and an interesting critical piece by Laura T. Smith focusing on Akilah Oliver's work can be read online at Vectors "Parataxis as "Strategic Provisionality" in Akilah Oliver's she said dialogues: flesh memory, Laura T. Smith": http://vectors.usc.edu/thoughtmesh/pu...