Paracritical Hinge is a collection of varied yet interrelated pieces highlighting Nathaniel Mackey鈥檚 multifaceted work as writer and critic. It embraces topics ranging from Walt Whitman鈥檚 interest in phrenology to the marginalization of African American experimental writing; from Kamau Brathwaite鈥檚 鈥渃alibanistic鈥 language practices to Federico Garc铆a Lorca鈥檚 flamenco aesthetic of duende and its continuing repercussions; from H. D.鈥檚 desert measure and coastal way of knowing to the altered spatial disposition of Miles Davis鈥檚 trumpet sound; from Robert Duncan鈥檚 serial poetics to diasporic syncretism; from the lyric poem鈥檚 present-day predicaments to gnosticism. Offering illuminating commentary on these and other artists including Amiri Baraka, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Wilson Harris, Jack Spicer, John Coltrane, Jay Wright, and Bob Kaufman, Paracritical Hinge also sheds light on Mackey鈥檚 own work as a poet, fiction writer, and editor.
鈥淢ackey鈥檚 new volume is more even than the 鈥榩aracriticism鈥 of its title, it is a hinge linking practices, linking a poetic critique with a metamusical aesthetic. Fiction and criticism conjoin in the passages drawing from Mackey鈥檚 serial fiction even as the interviews proffer a poetics.鈥濃擜ldon Nielsen, Penn State University
鈥淢ackey鈥檚 voice emanates from the perspective available to a contemporary African American, jazz influenced, on-the-postmodern-cusp intellectual poet. His voice is well defined: he knows of what he speaks, and he is keen to utilize the power of his vantages to illuminate.鈥濃擜lfred Arteaga, University of California, Berkeley
