ASEMIC: The Art of Writing by Peter Schwenger is available now from University of Minnesota Press!

ASEMIC: The Art of Writing
By Peter Schwenger

University of Minnesota Press | 192 pages | December 2019

ISBN 978-1-5179-0697-9 | paper | $25.00

ISBN 978-1-5179-0696-2 |  cloth | $100.00

In recent years, asemic writing—writing without language—has exploded in popularity, with anthologies, a large-scale art exhibition, and flourishing interest on sites like tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. Asemic is the first critical study of this fascinating field, proposing new ways of rethinking the nature of writing and exploring how asemic writing has evolved and gained importance today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peter Schwenger is resident fellow at the University of Western Ontario’s Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism. He is the author of several books, including The Tears of Things: Melancholy and Physical Objects and At the Borders of Sleep: On Liminal Literature (both from Minnesota).

PRAISE FOR ASEMIC:

"How does the noncommunicative communicate? This is the seemingly innocent question Peter Schwenger unpacks. At once storehouse and treatise, Asemic has the clarity of a dictionary entry, its sagacity delivered with deceptive ease, revealing a domain vaster than anyone would have thought: a Copernican marvel." —Jed Rasula, author of History of a Shiver: The Sublime Impudence of Modernism

"Asemic is a long-overdue study of poetries that occupy liminal spaces between art, like Cy Twombly's paintings, and recognizable words, like Henri Michaux's poetry. Peter Schwenger offers an extended theory and an introductory survey of contemporary asemic writing by Michael Jacobson, Rosaire Appel, Christopher Skinner, and others. From this book one can learn to read and, by extension, teach asemiological texts." —Craig Saper, co-editor of Readies for Bob Brown's Machine

"This is the first full-length exploration of the history and meaning of asemic writing. Important figures such as Michaux, Twombly, Barthes, Jim Leftwich, and Rosaire Appel are included, as well as examples from Chinese culture. Well-chosen illustrations accompany Peter Schwenger's insightful text. This book is a solid first map of a territory previously unknown to academic study." —Tim Gaze, publisher of Asemic magazine

For more information, including the table of contents, visit the book's webpage:

https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/asemic

Asemic The Art Of Writing is also available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1517906970/?coliid=I39Q0KY70LAZWR&colid=RCOJWWCHZFSL&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it