The Language poets, also called L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets after a magazine with that name, are a group of American poets who began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of the poets in this group include Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalapino, Stephen Rodefer, Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Ron Silliman, Barrett Watten, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Mandel, Bob Perelman, Rae Armantrout, Alan Davies, Carla Harryman, Clark Coolidge, Hannah Weiner, Susan Howe, James Sherry, and Tina Darragh.
Language poetry focuses on how readers create meaning from a poem. It pays less attention to expressing emotions and instead sees poems as structures made from language itself. In more detailed terms, this group challenges the idea that a speaker clearly exists behind the words in a poem. It also highlights how words are separated and how the physical form of words matters. These poets often use prose poetry, especially in long and non-story formats.
To develop their style, members of the Language school started by studying methods used by modernist poets, such as Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofsky. Language poetry is an example of postmodernism in poetry. Earlier influences include the New American poets, which includes groups like the New York School, the Objectivist poets, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance.
Since the 1970s, Language poetry has been a topic of debate in American literature. The name itself has caused discussion. While some poets and critics use the name of the magazine with equals signs, others avoid them. Terms like "language writing" and "language-centered writing" are also used and may be the most general way to describe the group. None of the poets associated with this movement have used the equals signs when referring to their work together. The use of the equals signs in some articles may show the writer’s position as an outsider. There is also debate about whether someone can be called a Language poet without being part of this specific group. Is it a style or a group of people?
In his book San Francisco Beat: Talking With the Poets (2001, p. vii), David Meltzer writes: "The language group never truly left college. They’ve always been good students, and now they’re excellent teachers. The professionalization and rationalization of poetry in schools made teaching and writing poetry routine." Later in the book (p. 128), poet Joanne Kyger says: "The Language school felt like it took poetry away from its roots. It may have cleaned up confessional poetry, but I saw it as making poetry less alive."
Examples of writing by Language poets can be found online, including on blogs, personal websites, and through resources like the Electronic Poetry Center, PennSound, and UbuWeb.
History
The movement has not been controlled by one group. On the West Coast, an early example of language poetry was the start of This magazine, edited by Robert Grenier and Barrett Watten, in 1971. L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, edited by Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein, was published from 1978 to 1982 in New York. It included discussions about poetry and topics like "The Politics of Poetry" and "Reading Stein." Ron Silliman's poetry newsletter Tottel's (1970–81), Bruce Andrews's selections in a special issue of Toothpick (1973), Lyn Hejinian's editing of Tuumba Press, and James Sherry's editing of Roof magazine also helped spread ideas in language poetry. The first major collection of language-centered ideas was the article "The Politics of the Referent," edited by Steve McCaffery for the Toronto-based publication Open Letter (1977).
In an essay from the first issue of This, Grenier wrote: "I HATE SPEECH." Grenier's ironic statement (a type of speech act) and his questions about how language gives meaning became central to language poets. Ron Silliman, in the introduction to his anthology In the American Tree, encouraged young U.S. poets who were not satisfied with the work of earlier poets like those from the Black Mountain and Beat movements.
"I HATE SPEECH" — Robert Grenier
The range of poetry published in This, Tottel's, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, and other key publications and essays during this time helped create the field of discussion that became known as Language (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) poetry.
During the 1970s, many magazines published poets who later became part of the Language movement. These included A Hundred Posters (edited by Alan Davies), Big Deal, Dog City, Hills, Là Bas, MIAM, Oculist Witnesses, QU, and Roof. Poetics Journal, which published writings about poetry and was edited by Lyn Hejinian and Barrett Watten, appeared from 1982 to 1998. Early gatherings of Language writing included Bruce Andrews's selections in Toothpick (1973); Silliman's selections "The Dwelling Place: 9 Poets" in Alcheringa (1975); and Charles Bernstein's "A Language Sampler" in The Paris Review (1982).
Certain poetry reading series in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco were important places where poets performed this new work and shared ideas. The most important was the Ear Inn reading series in New York, started in 1978 by Ted Greenwald and Charles Bernstein and later organized by James Sherry's Segue Foundation and curated by Mitch Highfill, Jeanne Lance, Andrew Levy, Rob Fitterman, Laynie Brown, Alan Davies, and The Poetry Society of New York. Other important series included Folio Books in Washington, D.C., started by Doug Lang, and the Grand Piano reading series in San Francisco, curated by Barrett Watten, Ron Silliman, Tom Mandel, Rae Armantrout, Ted Pearson, Carla Harryman, and Steve Benson at different times.
Poets who were part of the first wave of Language poetry include: Rae Armantrout, Stephen Rodefer (1940–2015), Steve Benson, Abigail Child, Clark Coolidge, Tina Darragh (1950–2025), Alan Davies, Carla Harryman, P. Inman, Lynne Dryer, Madeline Gins (1941–2014), Michael Gottlieb, Fanny Howe (1940–2025), Susan Howe, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Jackson Mac Low (1922–2004), Tom Mandel, Bernadette Mayer (1945–2022), Steve McCaffery, Michael Palmer, Ted Pearson, Bob Perelman, Nick Piombino, Peter Seaton (1942–2010), Joan Retallack, Erica Hunt, James Sherry, Jean Day, Kit Robinson, Ted Greenwald, Leslie Scalapino (1944–2010), Diane Ward, Rosmarie Waldrop, and Hannah Weiner (1928–1997). This list shows the many female poets involved in the Language writing movement. African-American poets connected to the movement include Hunt, Nathaniel Mackey, and Harryette Mullen.
Poetics of language writing: Theory and practice
Language poetry shows that readers help create meaning in a poem. It began partly because poets wanted to change how earlier poets used emotional language. In the 1950s and 1960s, some poets followed William Carlos Williams by using everyday American speech instead of the more formal language preferred by the New Criticism movement. Poets from the New York School, like Frank O'Hara, and the Black Mountain group focused on using spoken language and daily expressions in their work.
In contrast, some Language poets used techniques like metonymy, synecdoche, and complex sentence structures. Even when using everyday speech, their work felt different and harder to understand. This was intentional, as Language poetry aims to involve readers in creating meaning.
Watten and Grenier’s magazine This (and This Press, which Watten edited), along with the magazine L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, published work by important Black Mountain poets like Robert Creeley and Larry Eigner. Silliman sees Language poetry as a continuation of earlier movements, but with added criticism. Watten argues that the New American poets focused on personal expression, while Language poets see poems as structures made from language itself. Bernstein, however, highlights the creative potential of using constructed or found language.
Gertrude Stein, especially after her book Tender Buttons, and Louis Zukofsky, with his long poem A, greatly influenced the Language school. After World War II, poets like John Cage, Jackson Mac Low, and members of the New York School (John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan) and the Black Mountain School (Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan) were important influences. Many of these poets used methods based on math and logic to shape their poetry. This approach became central to Language poetry. Stein’s work inspired Language poets because she often used language without clear references. Language poets also studied Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ideas about how language works, such as "language-games" and "meaning as use."
Today, the definition of Language poetry is still being shaped. Many poets connected to the movement are still active. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Language poetry was widely recognized as an important part of innovative writing in the U.S. This was helped by some Language poets becoming teachers at major universities like the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.
Language poetry also influenced writers outside the U.S., including in England, Canada, France, the USSR, Brazil, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia. In the UK, American Language poets worked with writers like Tom Raworth and Caroline Bergvall. Others, like J.H. Prynne, were more critical of Language poetry.
A second group of poets influenced by Language poetry includes Eric Selland, Lisa Robertson, Juliana Spahr, the Kootenay School poets, and movements like conceptual writing and Flarf.
Many women poets and publications focused on innovative writing are connected to Language poetry. These poets often explore different themes. Examples include Leslie Scalapino, Susan Howe, Lyn Hejinian, and Carla Harryman. Magazines like HOW/ever and anthologies like Out of Everywhere: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America & the UK highlight this work.
Ten Language poets, who all helped run a reading series at a San Francisco coffee house, wrote The Grand Piano, a collection of ten books. They worked together through email. The authors included Lyn Hejinian, Carla Harryman, Rae Armantrout, and others. An eleventh person, Alan Bernheimer, helped organize the project and wrote about filmmaker Warren Sonbert. Each book in The Grand Piano includes essays by all ten authors, often responding to each other’s work.
Some poets, like Norman Finkelstein, describe their relationship with Language poetry as unclear, even after working with it for many years. Finkelstein once said that when previously overlooked poets write their own literary history, there is a risk of becoming too focused on themselves.