K. Silem Mohammad

K. Silem Mohammad lives in Santa Cruz, where he lectures on literature. His poetry has appeared recently or will appear shortly in Kenning, Combo, Rhizome, Fourteen Hills, Blue Book, 9 to 0, and CrossConnect. His serial poem hovercraft was recently released as a special, single-author issue of Kenning. When you see the name of K. Silem Mohammad attached to a poem or a reading, you know you’re in for a post-traumatic experience in which language, recuperated from event and lineage, enacts a new and completely original resistance to traditional modes of grammar, if not syntax. John Ashbery’s stunning, slow, meditative line’s got nothing on young Mohammad’s way of keeping a whole deck of cards up a sleeveless mesh vest for the world to see. For, eschewing all safety, he brings New York sophistication and Buster Keaton slapstick fun to a whole new continent of puzzle. Just don’t take away his unexpected italics, he’d lose his mind.
October 27, 2000

Mohammad also spoke about Lyric Equivalence in SPT's New Experiments series on October 5, 2002. Read from his talk.

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