“That Tongue Be Time”

Originally from Canada, Norma Cole is a revered writer and visual artist who has authored and translated over thirty books and chapbooks. Though highly esteemed internationally in both visual art and poetry circles, Cole’s association with the New College of California and her influence on artists and poets has been overlooked by scholars. In “That Tongue Be Time,” Dale M. Smith seeks to remedy this oversight by bringing together sixteen noted scholars, editors, and poets to examine Cole’s poetry, translations, and visual art in order to place her within the larger scholarly conversation about contemporary poetry and poetics. The book also includes a number of black-and-white reproductions of Cole’s art and a contextual introduction by Smith. “That Tongue Be Time” provides a groundbreaking look at Norma Cole’s lasting influence on multiple generations of poets, visual artists, and scholars and should be on the shelf of anyone interested in contemporary poetry.

Dale M. Smith is a professor in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is author and coeditor of several other books, including An Open Map: The Correspondence of Robert Duncan and Charles Olson (UNM Press).