Hannah Weiner; Spoke

Series No.: SM Weiner

ISBN: 0-940650-26-6, Pages: 115

American Literature, Poetry

A Sun & Moon title.

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In the early 1970s, Weiner began writing a series of journals that were partly the result of her experiments with automatic writing and partly a result of her schizophrenia. Politics and ethics were central to a mode of writing she developed and called "clair-style," which used "words and phrases clairvoyantly seen." She let no representation of herself circulate that did not take her status as a clairvoyant into account.

Weiner influenced a number of the Language poets and was included in the In the American Tree anthology of Language poetry (edited by Ron Silliman). Beginning with Little Books/Indians (1980) and Spoke (1984) Weiner's work engaged with Native American politics, particularly the American Indian Movement and the case of imprisoned activist Leonard Peltier.