John Ashbery has influenced more poets than almost any other author since 1950. Dean Young, Jane Miller, David Shapiro, and many younger poets take up the pen from within his tradition of shifting tone, quirky imagery, and timeless narratives. His innovations seem to have arrived simultaneously with

Absurd, Fleeting, Improvised, Loose, New york school poetry, Overflowing, Sprawling

Stockton, California, is generally known for producing seed hybrids, not literary ones. But that all changed in 1940, when the town saw the birth of author Maxine Hong Kingston. Stockton would remain the same, but Asian American literature would be changed forever. Kingston was the third of eig

Bright, Eclectic, Lyrical, Overflowing, Sensual, Women's literature

Like Pina Bausch, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker has an affinity for the dramatic and overwrought -- Mark Morris even dubbed her "Anne Teresa de Tearjerker." However, we cannot overlook the rigor with which she approaches form. Her pattern-making has been compared to that of such Minimalists as Laura Dea

Dramatic, Euro-surreal expressionism, Hypnotic, Overflowing, Pathos, Severe

Charlie "Bird" Parker blew the sound of his soul through his alto and tenor sax, and for many musicians, hearing his music was like a religious conversion. He is immortalized as jazz music's "first existential hero," a blazing talent that burned out at age 35 from heroin, alcohol, and racism. The t

Bebop, Bright, Improvised, Loose, Overflowing, Pioneering