Erasures

Artist Statement |  Erasure poetry can lend itself to ars poetica moments, as Jeannie Vanasco acknowledges in her Believer essay “Absent Things as if They Are Present,” and I, too, seek out an ars poetica through re-redacting the Pentagon Papers. These erasures also double as an act of resistance against a document that outlined part of the damaging presence of the United States in Vietnam. As a descendant of a Vietnam veteran, I know this identity has informed and affects me as a poet, so this project serves as a representation of my position—both speaking out against continuing such shadowy practices and revealing how we, too, are encoded in their effects.

Dennis Etzel Jr. lives with Carrie and the boys in Topeka, Kansas, where he teaches English at Washburn University. He has published numerous books, including My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015) which was selected by The Kansas City Star as a Best Poetry Book of 2015. His work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, FACT-SIMILE, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3:AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. Etzel is the recipient of a 2017 Troy Scroggins Award and the 2017 Topeka ARTSConnect Arty Award in Literary Arts. He is a TALK Scholar for the Kansas Humanities Council and leads poetry workshops in various Kansas spaces.