Natalie Helberg, Winner of the 5th Annual Robin Blaser Award for Poetry
Natalie Helberg, one of Numéro Cinq‘s stellar band of contributors, has just won the 2015 Robin Blaser Poetry Award for a poem called “dearest Naoko, who said the horseshit is astronomical.” The poem will be published imminently in The Capilano Review 3.27 (Fall 2015). TCR, which administers the Robin Blaser Award, is a venerable West Coast Canadian literary magazine that specializes in experimental art and literature. Robin Blaser was a Colorado-born poet who wisely immigrated to Vancouver in 1966. Before that, he combined with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan to spawn the so-called San Francisco Renaissance. Later he met Charles Olson and absorbed some of the Black Mountain spirit. In Vancouver, he influenced a broad spectrum of Canadian experimental poetry, a cultural stream that is still vibrant and alive today. In 1994, dg had the pleasure of interviewing Blaser (this is one of those Numéro Cinq coincidences) on his radio show. Some day he will dig out the tape and post the interview.
Natalie Helberg has been a real stalwart at NC over the past couple of years bringing a robust intellectual feminism and respect for experimental literature to the mix. Check out her many reviews, essays and interviews on her archive page here. Read her amazing essay “O Sujet d’Assujettissement (or, Story of O and Foucault)” in our September issue. And watch for her wise interview with Joanna Walsh (@badaude) in our November issue.
