JEN BERVIN
Born: Dubuque, Iowa, 1972.
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION
MA Poetry, University of Denver, 2001
BFA Studio Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1996
Macalester College, Charles University, Prague 1990-1992
FELLOWSHIPS AND HONORS
2012 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency
2012 Von Hess Visiting Artist, Borowsky Center for Publication Arts
2010 Visual Studies Workshop Residency
2009 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency
2007 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry
2006 Camargo Foundation Fellowship, Cassis, France
2006 MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship
2006 Creative Capital Grant in Innovative Writing Finalist
2005 Dickinson Research, Mellon Research Stipend, Pratt Institute
2005 Houghton Library, Mellon Travel Grant, Pratt Institute
2004 Centrum Arts Residency, Fort Warden State Park
2003 The Center for Book Arts, Letterpress Workshop Fellowship
2000 Academy of American Poets, Edward M. Lannan Prize
1999 Colorado Fellowship, University of Denver
1996 Presidential Merit Scholar, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
BOOKS
The Gorgeous Nothings. Edition of 60. New York: Granary Books, 2012.
The Dickinson Composites. Edition of 50. New York: Granary Books, 2010.
The Silver Book. Edition of 500. Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse chapbook, 2010.
The Desert. Edition of 40. New York: Granary Books, 2008.
Nets. Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2004. Fifth Printing, 2010.
A Non- Breaking Space. Web-only. Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005.
The Red Box. Edition of 10. Represented by Granary Books, 2004.
Under What Is Not Under. Potes & Poets Press, 2000.
SELECTED ANTHOLOGIES AND CATALOGUES
Figuring Color: Kathy Butterly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roy McMakin, Sue Williams.
Jenelle Porter &
Jeremy Sigler, eds. ICA Boston/ Hatje Cantz (2012)
I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women, Laynie Browne, Caroline Bergvall & Vanessa Place, eds. Los Angeles: Les Figues Press (2012)
Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Fiction. Lance Olsen & Trevor Dodge, eds. (forthcoming).
Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing, Craig Dworkin & Kenneth Goldsmith, eds.
Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press 2011)
La Familia Americana: Antologia de Nueva Poesia de Estados Unidos, Carlos Pardo & Elizabeth Zuba, eds. Madrid, Spain: Antonio Machado Libros. (2010)
READ 4, Cole Swensen and Sarah Riggs, eds., 1913 Press (2009)
Threads: Interweaving Textu[r]al Meaning, New York, NY: Center for Book Arts (2009)
The Reality Street Book of Sonnets, Jeff Hilson, ed. UK: Reality Street Editions (2008)
Less Is More: The Poetics of Erasure, exhibition catalogue, Simon Fraser University (2008)
Observable Anthology, Aaron, Belz, ed. St.Louis: Observable Books (2008)
Helen Mirra, Sky-Wreck. Art catalogue essays by Jen Bervin and Hamza Walker, fiction by Ben Marcus. The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2002.
INTERVIEWS
"Beyond Perfect Bound: A Conversation with Jen Bervin and Nancy Kuhl" conducted by Michael Dinsmoor and Andrew Mauzey, The Poetry Foundation website (2010)
Suzanne Pettypiece, "Beyond Words: Five Authors Who Practice Other Arts" in Poets & Writers Magazine
(Jan/Feb 2010 Inspiration Issue)
Kareem Estefan, Jen Bervin on Ceptuetics archived on PennSound (2008)
Susan Brennan, Jen Bervin on Radio Poetique archived on PennSound (2004)
Ray Bianchi, "Poetic Profile: Jen Bervin," Chicago Postmodern Poetry (2004)
Cole Swensen, "Acts of Retrieval: Jen Bervin's Recombinant Poems" How2 (2000)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The New York Times (March 30, 2011) “Click, Clack, Ding! Sigh” (Jessica Bruder)
TheThe Poetry (11 January 2011) Review of The Silver Book (Levi Rubeck)
TheThe Poetry (3 January 2011) Review of Small Anchor Press: The Dory Reader (Bianca Stone)
Poetry is Dead Magazine: Temporary Structures , Issue 3 (2011) "Lovers & Taxonomists:
On Sonnets Bervin & Betts, Strand & Boland (Jacob McArthur Mooney)
Transatlantica American Studies Journal (2010) "Living-with Shakespeare?" (Vincent Broqua)
ARTINFO.com (Nov 19, 2010) "Bibliocidal Tendencies" (Ross Simonini)
Journal of Artists’ Books 26 "Review of The Desert by Jen Bervin" (Tate Shaw) (2010)
Notes on Conceptualisms, Rob Fitterman, Vanessa Place eds. Brooklyn: UDP (2009)
The Blue Notebook 4:1 (2009) "Reading in Installments: Book Art Meets Installation" (Elysa Voshell)
The New York Times (Nov 28, 2008) "Arty Subversives Storm the Museum" (Jorie Finkel)
The Believer 3:9 (November 2005). "The Lost Symphony" (Paul Collins)
American Letters and Commentary 26:2 (Jan/Feb 2005)
"The Sonnets of William Shakespeare" (Jocelyn Emerson)
Indiana Review (Summer 2005). The Collaboration and Collage Issue. (Jennifer Scaife)
Traffic Small Press Traffic Newsletter, 2005. (Jane Sprague)
Double Room 5 (Winter/Spring 2005). ""Roses no such roses": Jen Bervin's Nets
and the Sonnet Tradition from Shakespeare to the Postmoderns" (W. Scott Howard)
Aufgabe 4 (Fall 2004). "Nets by Jen Bervin" (Christine Hume)
Frontlist Books Seminary Coop Bookstore, University of Chicago (Summer 2004)
Rain Taxi 34 9:2 (Summer 2004). (Noah Eli Gordon)
The Village Voice (May 28, 2004). "The Connections" (Ed Park)
Jacket 25 (February 2004). "Phillip Metres reviews Nets by Jen Bervin" (Philip Metres)
WORK: TEACHING
Vermont College of Fine Arts (Montpelier, VT)
Visiting Faculty, MFA Program in Writing 2010- present
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME) 2012
Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) January Intensive in Creative Writing 2011
“'All The Architectures I Am': Structure as Revolution in Contemporary Poetry."
Göteborgs Universitet and Biskops-Arnö (Göteborgs, Sweden) 2011
“Visual poetry seminar” 2011
92Y Unterberg Poetry Center (New York, NY)
"Poetry Workshop" Fall 2010, Fall 2011
Poets House (New York, NY)
"Collaborations" Spring 2007; "Visual Poetry" Spring 2010
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY), Visiting Assistant Professor
Creative Writing B.F.A. Program 2003-2007
New York University (NY), Lecturer in Poetry,
School of Continuing and Professional Studies 2002-2007
University of Denver (Denver, CO), Visiting Lecturer, English Department 1999-2001
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Exhibition Curator, "Emily Dickinson Manuscripts from the Donald & Patricia Oresman Collection."
Poets House, New York, NY, Fall 2011
Broadside Reading Series Curator, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, Spring 2011
Curator, “It’s for You: a Festival of Interdisciplinary Collaborations and Firsts.”
Festival co-curated with, Rob Fitterman. Zinc Bar, New York, NY, throughout April 2011
Editor-at-Large, jubilat, Issues 15-present; Editor, jubilat, Issues 11-14
Reading Series Curator, "Friday Forum Reading Series" Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, 2004 - 2006
CONFERENCES
Modernist Studies Association Conference 13: Structures of Innovation
Paper: “Weaving as Typing: Typewriter Studies at Black Mountain College”
Society for Textual Scholarship Conference (Penn State) 2011
Panel: "Beyond the Fascicles: Extrageneric Emily Dickinson."
Ambience in the Humanities: Translating New Surroundings into New Poetics (New York, NY)
Roundtable: "Ambient Poetics" 2010
Black Mountain North Conference (Rochester,NY) 2010
Panel: "Sampling Black Mountain: Visual Arts Happenings Then and Now."
In(ter)ventions Conference, The Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada)
Panel: "Betwixt & Between – Collaboration & Cross-Disciplinary Literary Creation."
Juniper Literary Festival (Amherst, MA)
Panel: "Poetry and the Visual Arts." 2010
College Art Association Conference (Chicago, IL)
Panel: "The Artist's Book as a Site for Interdisciplinary Work."
The Hybrid Book Conference, University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA) 2009
Panel: "Text and the Hybrid Book."
College Book Art Association: Art, Fact, and Artifact Conference (Iowa City, IA)
Panel: "The Margins of Marginalia"
Society for Textual Scholarship Conference (New York, NY) 2007
Panel: "Pictured Text: Visual-Verbal Relations in the 19th Century."
LECTURES
Visiting Lecturer, "Emily Dickinson," Eugene Lang College, New York University (NY, NY) 2010
Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY) 2010
Visiting Lecturer, "Thinking in Situations," Special Collections, Mills College (Oakland, CA) 2010
Visiting Lecturer, "Erasures," Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY) 2010
Chapman University, English Department (Orange, CA) 2009
Visiting Lecturer, "Dickinson's Manuscripts."
Occidental College, English Department, Fine Arts Department (Los Angeles, CA)
Visiting Lecturer, "Poïesis: all things rare/this huge rondure hems."
Seattle Center for Book Arts (Seattle, WA)
Visiting Lecturer, "Writing for the Artist Book."
Notes on Conceptualisms, The Kitchen (New York, NY) "Draft Notation."
Book Arts Guild, University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
Visiting Lecturer, "A Decade of Poetry/Artist Books."
Machine Project Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) "Pie: Theory and Practice." 2008
"Our Emily Dickinson: A 21st Century Response by Artists and Writers" with Susan Howe,
Jen Bervin, Eliot Weinberger, and Brenda Wineapple. Poet's House (New York, NY) 2007
University of Georgia (Athens, GA ) Printmaking, English Department BFA and MFA Program
Visiting Lecturer, " Working with Archives and Manuscripts."
L'École Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France) 2006
Visiting Lecturer, "Shakespeare's Sonnets: I am /vanishing or vanished/ in these black lines."
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) Writing Across the Curriculum, Fine Arts Faculty Workshop
Visiting Lecturer, "Interdisciplinary Collaborations."
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Writing Program (Chicago, IL)
Visiting Lecturer, "The Dickinson Composites," The Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection.
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK), The Graduate Program in English and Creative Writing
Visiting Lecturer, "That Bright Becoming of Things."
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) Writing Across the Curriculum, Fine Arts Faculty Workshop
Visiting Lecturer, "Approaches to Teaching Poetry in Art, Architecture, and Design Classes." 2005
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) Writing Across the Curriculum, Fine Arts Faculty Workshop
Visiting Lecturer, "Writing in the Studios."
Pratt Institute, English Department, Creative Writing (Brooklyn, NY)
Visiting Lecturer, "Emily Dickinson: "immured in/ Heaven - what/ a Cell -"
VISITING ARTIST/ GUEST CRITIC
Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) Visual and Environmental Studies, 2010
Mills College (Oakland, CA) MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing Program, 2010
Brown University (Providence, RI) Creative Writing Program, "Writers on Writing," 2009
New York University (New York) Creative Writing Program, "Writers in New York"
Chapman University (Orange, CA) English Department, Visiting Poet
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA) English Department, Visiting Poet
New York University (New York) Creative Writing Program, "Writers in New York" 2008
The Packer School (Brooklyn, NY) English Department, Visiting Poet
University of Georgia (Athens, GA) English Department, "Ruin/ Erosion/ Erasure" 2007
The New School (New York), Parsons Design + Technology MFA Thesis Review, Guest Critic
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK) English Department, Creative Writing, Visiting Poet, 2006
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) Painting and Drawing, Fine Arts Department, Guest Critic
Wells College (Aurora, NY) English Department, Visiting Poet, 2005
Wells College (Aurora, NY) Wells College Book Arts Center, Visiting Artist/Poet
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) Architecture Department, Guest Critic
Queens College, City University of New York, (Queens, NY) English Dept., Visiting Poet, 2004
SELECTED READINGS
Gothenburg Poetry Festival (Sweden), The Museum of Arts and Design (New York), The Cue Art Foundation (New York), The Center for Book Arts (New York), KGB Reading Series (New York), Fusebox Festival (Austin), Segue Foundation Reading Series (New York), Double Change Reading Series (Paris, France), Links Hall Festival (Chicago), The Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church (New York), The Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour (Phoenix; James Turrell's Roden Crater; Las Vegas; The Museum of Natural History and Machine Project in Los Angeles), Threads Talk Series, Granary Books (New York), Textile Arts Center (Brooklyn), Women Center Stage Festival (New York), and The Poetry Society of America (New York).
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2012 "Postscript." Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
2011 "Jen Bervin: Weaving" Gridspace, Brooklyn, NY
2011 "Jen Bervin's Dickinson Composites." Poets House, New York, NY
2011 "Telefone sem fio.” EFA Project Space, New York, NY
2011 "Emblem of My Work." Lawrence Sterne's Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire, England
2011 "Object Poems." 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR
2010 "The Perverse Library." Lawrence Sterne's Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire, England
2010 "Speaking Volumes." The Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
2010 "Elements of Style: Fashion and Form at the Beinecke." Yale University, New Haven, CT
2010 "A Million Random Digits." The Reanimation Library at Gridspace, Brooklyn, NY
2010 "17 Ugly Years" UDP/Artbook @ PS1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA, NY
2009 "Text Messages." Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2009 "Threads: Interweaving Textu[r]al Meaning." The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
2009 "Black Pages." Lawrence Sterne's Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire, England
2009 "On Clouds." Observatory, Brooklyn, NY
2009 "Reading in Installments," The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA
2009 "Jen Bervin: Mississippi." Project 94, Brooklyn, NY*
2008 "The History Room: Matt Bakkom and Jen Bervin." The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
2008 "Less is More: The Poetics of Erasure." Simon Fraser University Gallery, BC, Canada
2008 "New Works on Handmade Paper." Dieu Donné Benefit Auction Exhibition, New York, NY
2008 "Mend." Proteus Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
2007 "Jen Bervin: New Work." Broad Street Gallery, Athens, GA*
2007 "Narrative Thread." Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael, CA
2007 "MacDowell Views." The Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, NH
2007 "Library." Proteus Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
2007 "Iteration." NurtureArt Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006 "Five Contemporary Visual Poets." The Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, WA
2006 "The Emily Dickinson Composites." The Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France*
2006 "Many Happy Returns." High Energy Constructs, Los Angeles, CA
2006 "The Way We Live Now." CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
2005 "Joshua Beckman and Jen Bervin." Word & Image Gallery, Treadwell, NY
2004 "What's in a Book?" New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
2004 "And Could I Further 'No'?" The Nest, Brooklyn, NY*
2001 "Pictures of the Passing Word." Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO
1996 "You Are Here." Gallery 2, Chicago, IL
1995 "Installations at the Soap Factory." The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
1993 "Underbelly." Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
1992 "International Women's Symposium." Macalester College Art Gallery, St. Paul, MN
1992 "Women, Art, and Politics." University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
University of California at Santa Barbara
Stanford University, Stanford, California
Mandeville Special Collections Library, UC San Diego
Mills College Special Collections, Oakland
University of Washington, Seattle
The New York Public Library, New York
Library of Congress, Washington DC
University of Utah, Salt Lake
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
University of Iowa, Iowa City
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
The Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
John Hay Special Collections Library, Brown University
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
Amherst College Library Special Collections, Amherst
Boston Athenaeum, Boston
Smith College, Northampton
Lafayette College, Pennsylvania
State University of New York, Buffalo
University of Delaware
University of Denver
Emory University Library, Atlanta
University of Georgia, Athens
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada
University of Alberta, Canada
British Library, London, United Kingdom
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France