Born: September 3, 1973
Years Active: 2000 - Present
Genre: Political Contemporary
Matthea Harvey was born in 1973. There is little biographical information about her early life. She began writing as a child and realized her potential for poetry in college after taking a class with Henri Cole. She doesn't restrict herself to just one art form but also played the flute for 13 years and enjoys photography and painting. Her sister, a painter, has provided much influence for her poetry.
Her poetry is described as "light and quick" by the New York Times. She draws for inspiration from the world around her. Using her eyes to absorb the goings on and then collecting them in an orange binder to combine various things to create poetry. Inspired by photography of Gabriel Orozco, words of Eliot, Dickens, and Trollope and music of Willie Nellson, Harvey pushes the mold to create poems that are uniquely her own.
Currently, Matthea works at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, edits jubilat, and continues to write poems and children's books. Her first children's book is scheduled to come out in 2009. She is also in the works with Amy Jean Porter for a collection of poems, Of Lamb, based on the life of Charles Lamb and his sister, Mary.
Works
Poetry
Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form, 2000
Sad Little Breathing Machine, 2004
Modern Life, 2007
Short Story
No One Will See Themselves in You, 2005
The Little General & the Giant Snow Flake, 2009
Moods
Warm
"a row of trucks lit like orange squares in the setting sun"
Gradations of Blue
Lonesome
"the maid thinks otherwise she knows the king
Does does not grip the queen tightly in his arms"
Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form
Intimate
"His breath quickens at night as he dreams of her he wants
To create a present unlike any other..."
Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form
Heavy
" ... the barge floating by loaded with
lard, the white flagstones like platelets in the blood-red road."
Implications for Modern Life
Witty
"In the aftermath of calculus
your toast fell butter-side down."
Shiver & You have Weather
Groups/Movements: Contemporary. Contemporary poets write of today and their surroundings. As Matthea Harvey is still writing today it is difficult to place her among a group or movement. Her writing is falls within many groups and movements including language poetry, New York School, and concrete poetry. Language poetry aims to emphasis the language of the poem and allow the reader to connect with the poem in a new way. Language poetry seeks to involve the reader in the work, thus allowing the reader to aid in the meaning of the poem. This style also requires the reader to approach the text in their own way. Language poetry is also found weaved among prose. The New York School of poetry was "serious, but also ironic and incorporated an urban sensibility into much of the work" (poets.org). This movement included John Ashbury, Frank O'Hara, and Alice Notley. The concrete poetry seeks to use visual aides to enhance the experience of the poem. The concrete poets included e.e. cummings and Ezra Pound.
I think Harvey takes many different aspects of each of these movements with her serious tones in The Future of Terror and Implications for Modern Life, which reflect the New York School by taking the changes in American life post 9/11. Alternately, she also uses breaks and spaces to create visual stimulation in Introduction to Eden, following in the concrete poetry movement. Many of Harvey's poems also fall into the language poetry movement by weaving her poetry into prose form in Baked Alaska, a Theory of. Thus while she is still writing Harvey can not be contained to just one movement or group and takes from many different movements.
Similar Artists
1) John Ashbery - Possibly an influence as well as a similar artist, Ashbery started his long career as a poet as an experimentalist, much like Harvey is known as now. Both poets use disjointed syntax and the broken up stanzas. Harvey follows in Ashbery's unconventional poem structure. Harvey and Ashbery use out of the ordinary language to describe a subject.
2) E. E. Cummings - Part of the concrete poets as one who wrote not only for literary appeal but also for visual appeal. His broken style of Buffalo Bill's is visually similar to Harvey's Introduction to the World. Both poets work with the visual and lack of punctuation at the end of lines to move the poem along. The lines cascade onto the next without interruption. Both poets share commonalities with Gertrude Stein as well.
Followers While Matthea Harvey is still producing works at the moment it is difficult to assign a follower. She teaches and therefore one can only imagine the number of students she has influenced and their potential for similarly great work.
Influences
1) Anthony Trollope - One of the most successful and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Trollope wrote of political, social and gender issues of his day. Harvey mentioned in an interview (see sources) the role of Trollope on her writing. She describes his language as "delicious." The influence can also be seen in her work of using language of today to relate current issues.
2)Amy Cutler - Harvey calls Cutler an influence as one who's paintings complement her (Harvey) poetry. Harvey finds Cutlers art something that can be friends with her poems. I find that the paintings of Cutler would be very much suited in a children's book, which happens to be a writing form Harvey uses often. Cutler also uses current events and personal experiences to design her works of art. Harvey has mentioned that she is influenced by things that come in through her senses (eyes, ears, nose, touch, taste), thus it is not surprising that she is influenced by art.
Works Consulted
www.poets.org
www.poetryfoundation.org
Sad Little Breathing Machine Matthea Harvey, 2004
Pity The Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form Matthea Harvey, 2000
Matthea Harvey website: www.mattheaharvey.info
New York Times www.nytimes.com
Article from Feb. 17, 2008
Bookslut Oct 2007
www.bookslut.com
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