Gustav BenJava

Gustav BenJava is a novelist and poet living in the Seattle area.

General

BenJava's unconventional style is a mixture of romanticism and post-modernism. His novels take place in the ballet world, but have complex plots and sub-plots involving mental illness, suicide, abortion and child abuse, pornography and exploitation. They are at times psychologically intense reminiscent of Dostoyevsky, and yet at others borderline on the fantastic, akin to Gogol or Pynchon, stopping just short of true magic realism.

His poetry is sometimes reminiscent of the free verse of E. E. Cummings and at other times more akin to the poetry of the French Symbolists. The Decagogue, for instances, is fragmented and disjointed but has unusual rhymes and reminds one of a cross between the lyrics for rap music and the fanciful and often meaningless symbolism of Rimbaud or Apollinaire.

Published works

Novels

* Nikki 2001 ISBN 0-7388-1723-6
* The Divine Comedian, 2004 ISBN 1-4134-3497-5

Poetry Chapbooks

* From My Shadow, 1992
* The Decagogue, 1992
* Mirror, 1992 Mirror has the distinction of being the only book ever printed in the English language entirely backward. It can only be read in a mirror.

Individual Poems

* Nycteras, 1997
* Infinite Fragility, 1997
* Amorphous Bombycillidae, 1997
* Buttercup Vortex, 1997
* Arabesque, 1998
* Giselle, 1998
* Odette, 1999
* Tiny Footprints, in Little Brown Poetry, 2001

Articles

* Dancing with Van Gogh, [http://www.vangoghgallery.com Van Gogh Gallery] , 2002

External links

* [http://www.benjava.com/poetry/ Official poetry page, containing much of the above poetry]