By the 1960s, visual and experimental poetry was widely acknowledged as the first truly international poetry movement, occurring on several continents. The simultaneous “mimeograph revolution”—an emerging name for the proliferation of small, poet- and artist-operated presses and little magazines that emerged in the postwar era—meant that an extraordinary variety of experimental work appeared in ephemeral outlets, often reflecting an array of geographic influence and communities. 

Curated by Steve Clay and M.C. Kinniburgh, with editorial, cataloging, and exhibition assistance by Conley Lowrance, After Words displays Clay’s and Granary Books’ substantial collection of visual, experimental, concrete, and sound poetry, as well as several Granary Books publications on this theme.