Joe Wenderoth

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Joe Wenderoth is from Baltimore, Maryland. Wesleyan University Press published his first two books of poetry: "Disfortune" (1995), and "It Is If I Speak" (2000). Verse Press published "Letters To Wendy’s" (2000) and "The Holy Spirit Of Life: Essays Written For John Ashcroft’s Secret Self (2005). "No Real Light," his newest book of poems, was published by Wave Books in 2007. Wenderoth is Associate Professor of English and teaches in the graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of California, Davis.

Wenderoth's work is widely anthologized, appearing in collections such as: "The Anchor Book Of New American Short Stories"; "Poetry 180"; "The Next American Essay"; "The Best American Prose Poems: From Poe To Present"; "The Body Electric"; "The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology"; "American Poetry: Next Generation"; "Best American Poetry."

In 2001, Rolling Stone called Wenderoth "one of the ten best writers under 35."

In 2003, the One Yellow Rabbit theater company performed an adaptation of Wenderoth's "Letters To Wendy's." The adaptation was done by Bruce McCulloch (Kids In The Hall) and Blake Brooker, both of whom also starred in the production.

Calvin Bedient writes of Wenderoth: "Joe Wenderoth's brave new poetic talent is like nothing so much as a live wire writing its own epitaph in sparks. [His poems] throb brilliantly with a sense of the 'too much.' . . . But in Wenderoth's case the too much is the too little or the too ordinary-a very remarkable discovery to have made so late in the history of poetry. Philip Larkin and a few American poets have approached it, but Wenderoth's instrument is sharper than theirs; he makes quick cuts in the meat of the ordinary, which is the meat of the impossible."

Ben Marcus writes: "Joe Wenderoth is a brilliant writer, original and subversive, sensitive and strange. I read his work with awe and admiration."

In 2007, Wenderoth performed in collaboration with Gibby Haynes (butthole surfers) in Brooklyn at the Issue Project Room. This performance can be seen on you-tube, as can other Wenderoth performances and films.