Cedar Sigo
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Cedar Sigo was raised on the Suquamish Reservation in the Pacific Northwest and studied at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute. He is the author of eight books and pamphlets of poetry, including Language Arts (Wave Books, 2014), Stranger in Town (City Lights, 2010), Expensive Magic (House Press, 2008), two editions of Selected Writings (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2003 and 2005) and most recently the Bagley Wright Lecture Series book Guard the Mysteries (Wave Books, 2021). He has taught workshops at St. Mary’s College, Naropa University and University Press Books. He is currently a mentor in the low residency MFA program at The Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Lofall, Washington.
(Author photo by Brian Marr)
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Reviews
Cedar Sigo is a Frank O’Hara for the 21st century: witty, erudite, serious, with a terrific ear & eye for the minutest details, at home in the world of the arts.
—Ron Silliman[His] poems seem at once contemporary and antiquated, totally alien and uncannily familiar, so that they operate with a realm of uncertainty where any movement the poem makes is charged with potential.
—Ben Mirov, BOMBlogWhat happens when grace is embodied with just a hint of social brutality, mixed with the charm of fluid yet solid beauty, and the resulting form embraces art as style for living? There’s nothing to ponder about after reading Cedar Sigo’s poems.
The word obsession appears several times in Sigo’s statement of his poetics. It is this singling out of a particular, this obsession with the data of the moment—a “furnished room,” a neon sign, lovers, the silverware at Foster’s cafeteria, the taste of blood—all identical in a fervent possession—that sets Sigo apart from the poetic mainstream.
—Patrick Dunagan, ArtVoice
Sigo, whose work is in conversation with poets such as Wieners, Jack Spicer, and Eileen Myles, as well as an array of visual artists and musicians, succeeds in creating an intertextual collection that is as rich as the many sources of inspiration from which it draws.
—Bethany Prosseda, Rain Taxi
—Richard O. Moore
Reviews of books by Cedar Sigo
Royals
Language Arts -
Poems
- Excerpt from Guard the Mysteries published in LitHub
- "Like Stride" (on poets.org)
- "On Strings of Blue" (on poets.org)
- Three Poems (in MudCity)
- “Panels for the Walls” (in Poets.org)
- Seven poems (in the Brooklyn Rail)
- “Now I'm a Woman” (in Poetry)
- “Green Rainbow Song” (in Poets.org)
- “After the Oracle” (in The Poetry Project)
- “Guns of the Trees” (in OmniVerse)
- "The Magic Mountain" (in Bear Books)
Articles
- Cedar Sigo's essay Process Notes for Poetry
- Cedar Sigo's essays and field notes for Open Space (SFMOMA)
- On collaborating with Micah Ballard for City Lights
Interviews
- Q&A with Cedar Sigo: GUARD THE MYSTERIES and Knowing Your History (in ZYZZYVA)
- The Dream of Suspension: A Conversation with Cedar Sigo on Poetry Northwest
- Take Down the Clouds
- Open Space (SFMOMA)
- Guernica -
Audio
- Lecture “Becoming Visible” as part of the Bagley Wright lecture series
- Reading and workshop with Sigo via Open Door Archive
- Reading “John Altoon” for Poetry Foundation's Poem of the Day
- Reading “$$$Expensive Magic$$$”
- Reading “Cold Valley”
- Reading for Machine Project's Mystery Theater Poetry Archives:
Video
Reading at McNally Jackson:
Reading "Marble Harbor" for PianoFight Films:
