Lost & Found’s Light Relief Program

It’s a pleasure to share the newest venture from one of our wonderful partners in the realms of poetics and mindfulness, Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. Lost & Found publishes original texts by figures central to and associated with New American Poetry, in an effort to excavate lost documents and to illuminate understudied aspects of literary, cultural, and political history.

In response to our current collective stay-at-home experience, the editors of  Lost & Found, with support from Engaging the Senses Foundation, are seeking poetry and short-form text, audio, video, visual art, and/or digital work through their just-launched Light Relief program. Their goal is to offer modest compensation (to those whose work is accepted) to share creative work across the range of Lost & Found’s platforms, with an emphasis on sending a piece already made or in progress, including creative works in draft, notes, notes on poetics or archival process, and other forms of creative work that contribute to the collective imagining of the rich and varied Lost & Found archive.

It’s characteristic of the thoughtfulness and creativity of the Lost & Found staff that they’ve organized a program uniquely suited to this stressful historical moment, emphasizing that the lightness of “Light Relief” extends ” to the work itself—readily available fragments from works in progress, or works completed, rather than new or extensive work. The work that Lost & Found historically excavates and edits so skillfully is itself uniquely suited to this moment, as the poets and artists whose work they publish were and are deeply engaged in, “the interplay of poetry, poetics, friendship, and politics.” We urge you to delve into their extraordinary publications/archives, with a note that deliveries may be delayed during our ongoing public health challenge.

According to the editors, “although our offering is modest, we hope to at least give some support to those whose incomes have been compromised but whose work remains crucial.”

The application deadline is Monday, June 1st, 2020. We invite you to submit, whether you are a longterm collaborator with Lost & Found, or new to their project but steeped in an interest in and engagement with New American Poetry.

How wonderful that we can continue to pursue our passionate belief in the value of poetry and art together, despite our necessary distance!