Andrew A. Levy
Andrew Levy is the author most recently of Artifice in the Calm Damages (Chax Press, 2017), Don’ÃÂt Forget to Breathe (Chax Press), Nothing Is In Here (EOAGH Books), and Cracking Up (Truck Books), along with eleven other titles of poetry and prose including, The Big Melt (Factory School), Paper Head Last Lyrics (Roof Books), Ashoka (Zasterle), and Values Chauffeur You (O Books). His writing works on the intersections of poetry & politics, class & racial division, the ecology of commerce & environment, economic & social justice, improvisational & experimental music, journalism & media convergence, the nature of language & religion, and the technologizing of the word & freedom. Levy’s poems and essays have appeared in numerous American and international magazines and anthologies including The Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry, Telling It Slant: Avant-Garde Poetics of the 1990s, LITSCAPES: Collected US Writings 2015, and An Anthology of 60 Contemporary American Poets (Zasterle, Spain, 2017). He was co-editor and publisher of the poetry journal Crayon with Roberto Harrison, 1997-2008. In addition, he fosters collaborations between musicians and writers on improvisatory poetry readings and performances.
Expertise
Degrees
- Ph.D. SUNY at Stony Brook, Comparative Literature,
- Associate Naropa Institute, Music & Poetics,
- Bachelor of Arts Indiana University, English/Creative Writing,
Courses Taught
- English Composition is the standard first-year writing course. The course introduces students to the academic writing process through the study of culturally-diverse nonfiction prose. Emphasis will be placed on developing thesis-driven responses to the writing of others, practicing revision,
following the conventions of MLA style, and completing a research project. By its successful conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum.
Prerequisite: Writing PI 65+ - This is a course that builds upon skills introduced in English 101. In this course, literature is the field for the development of critical reading, critical thinking, independent research, and writing skills. Students are introduced to literary criticisms and acquire basic knowledge necessary for the analysis of texts (including literary terms and some literary theory); they gain proficiency in library and internet research; and they hone their skills as readers and writers. Assignments move from close readings of literary texts in a variety of genres to analyses that introduce literary terms and broader contexts, culminating in an independent, documented, thesis-driven research paper. By the conclusion of English 201, students will be prepared for the analytical and research-based writing required in upper-level courses across the curriculum; they will also be prepared for advanced courses in literature. Prerequisite: ENG 101
- Fundamentals of Journalism offers an introduction to the practice, purpose, and history of journalism as projections about its future. The course addresses journalism in all its forms and media, e.g. film, print, radio, television, and Internet-based platforms, including Web sites, blogs, Twitter. It provides a foundation in journalisma??s professional code of ethics and the work of a free press to safeguard social liberty. Skills cultivated will include information gathering establishing credibility, writing, editing and dissemination. Prerequisite: ENG 101 and ENG 201
- This course covers the basic principles and practices of news reporting and writing. Students are taught to write single-incident news stories, conduct balanced interviews and edit their own copy, employing standard copy editing symbols and format. Emphasis is also given to the theoretical side of journalism with an overview of its history, present legal controls, ethical issues and rapidly expanding technology. Pre-Requisite: ENG201 or ENG121
- This course provides further opportunities for students to explore journalism. Students conduct interviews, cover stories around the city and write journalistic articles. Opportunities are provided for specialized coverage in areas such as politics, consumerism, science, education, finance, the arts, social change and family life. Topics include layout, headline composition and basics of journalism law.
- The objective of this course is to sharpen students' creative writing skills in the genres of the short story, poetry and drama, depending on students' interests and ability. Pre-Requisite: ENG121 or ENG201
- This course acquaints students with the wide range and varied forms of the short story as it developed in America, Europe, and other continents. Readings will include works by male and female authors of different periods and nationalities, and some attention may be paid to the historical development of the short story as a genre, as well as the cultural contexts in which the assigned stories were written. Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
- The goals of this course are to stimulate an appreciation for, and an enjoyment of, poetic masterworks mainly of the 20th century. This course includes critical reading and writing; its approach is an in-depth study of poetry which has universal significance. Writers studied include T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, e.e. cummings, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes, Theodore Roethke, Gwendolyn Brooks and Sylvia Plath.
Research and Projects
- My recent research project is on jazz in its cultural context drawing on personal anecdote, observation, conversations with jazz artists, aesthetic theory, and cultural theory as an important point of entry into some of the most contested issues of our era?power, identity, representation, history, ethics, and social change. In addition, I am engaged in a literary, performative, and sonic analysis of the role of dissonance in the art of improvisation and its importance to modernist and post-modernist American poetry.
- I serve on the advisory committee of the ?Living Archives? project initiated by The Center for the Humanities and the PhD Program in English at The Graduate Center, CUNY. ?Living Archives? aims to create alliances between libraries, arts institutions, and individuals across the country in order to highlight and preserve the work of living artists as well as their contemporaries, past and present. Along with an ongoing chapbook series, ?Lost And Found,? the project encompasses research fellowships for students and artists to work together, inside and outside of the archives. The ?Living Archives? is associated with the CUNY Poetics Document Initiative.
Publications
- Artifice in the Calm Damages,Tucson, AZ: Chax Press
- Dona??t Forget to Breathe,Tucson, AZ: Chax Press
- Cracking Up,New York, NY: Truck Books
- Nothing Is In Here (Novella),New York, NY: EOAGH
- Memories of My Father,Asheville, NC: Innerer Klang Press
- The Big Melt,NY: The Factory School
- Scratch Space,Buffalo, NY: Cuneiform Press
- Ashoka,Tenerife, Spain: Zasterle Books
- Paper Head Last Lyrics,New York, NY: Roof Books
- Elephant Surveillance to Thought,Buffalo, NY: Meow Press
- Continuous Discontinuous a?? Curve 2,Elmwood, CT: Potes & Poets Press
- Curve,Oakland, CA: O Books
- Democracy Assemblages,Asheville, NC: Innerer Klang Press
- Values Chauffeur You,Oakland, CA: O Books
- Between poems,Charlestown, MA: Innerer Klang Press
