Philippe Soupault, Poetry, Prose, and Interviews
At the age of nine, John Ashbery saw a spread in Life Magazine on an exhibition of Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism. He later said, “Those images made me want to be a Surrealist.”
Philippe Soupault is a key yet often overlooked figure of the Surrealist movement, and Mary Ann Caws, a leading scholar of that movement, has written: “Soupault is, at least in my opinion, the most appealing Surrealist since any encounter with him is both enriching and delightful.”
This evening Gregg Ellis will read from his new book of translations of Soupault’s poems and prose. Eric Longo and Mark Dow will complement the readings with excerpts of the original French texts and a selection of Ashbery’s more “surrealistic” poems.