It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts and Literature Jerome (Jerry) Rothenberg on April 21. He was 92.
Rothenberg was an internationally renowned poet, anthologist, essayist and performance artist who advanced poetry’s power in shaping our shared humanity. Throughout his prolific career, he published more than 80 books, many of them translated in multiple languages for global audiences. One of his most acclaimed is “Technicians of the Sacred,” a 1968 collection of African, American, Asian and Oceanic poetry. In that anthology, Rothenberg coined the term “ethnopoetics,” synthesizing scholarship on poetry, linguistics, anthropology and ethnology.
The work, which is still in print more than 50 years later, launched a literary movement that juxtaposes the oral traditions of cultures throughout the world with avant-garde and experimental poetry. Rothenberg’s goal was to create a bridge between humanity’s artists across space and time to inspire generations of poets, musicians and artists to consider multiple possibilities in their works. Rock music performers in particular were captivated — from Patti Smith and Warren Zevon to Eddie Vedder and Jim Morison.
During his career, Rothenberg assembled, edited and annotated nearly a dozen anthologies of poetry and performance art. He edited three of the four volumes of “Poems for the Millennium” (University of California Press), a revolutionary collection of manifestos that captured the art and poetry of the 20th century. And one more work is nearing publication: “The Serpent and the Fire: Poetries of the Americas from Origins to Present,” an anthology that coins the term “omnipoetics” to present views of North and South America in a transnational, multilingual vision of what “America” means. “The Serpent and the Fire,” co-edited with Javier Taboada, comes out in October 2024 from the University of California Press.
Considered to be one of the most important American poets of his generation by many of his peers, Rothenberg published numerous collections of poetry — such as “The Dada Strain,” “A Book of Witness” and “The Lorca Variations” with New Directions Press and “Eye of Witness: A Jerome Rothenberg Reader” with Black Widow Press. These and other works garnered numerous accolades during his professional career, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, two PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Awards, and two PEN Center USA West Translation Awards. In 2001, he was elected to the World Academy of Poetry.
Rothenberg’s zest for poetry and performance never waned, with more posthumous work to be released in 2024. These include a revised libretto for an opera about 13th century Spanish kabbalist Abraham Abulafia, which will be performed at UC Irvine. In addition, an album titled “In the Shadow of a Mad King” will be released, on which he reads his poems about the Trump era with musical accompaniment by UC San Diego Professor of Music Mark Dresser.
Born on Dec. 11, 1931, to Morris and Esther Rothenberg, he was raised in New York City and graduated from City College of New York in 1952 with a bachelor’s degree in English. Rothenberg went on to the University of Michigan to receive a master’s in literature in 1953. From 1953 until 1955, he served in the U.S. Army in Mainz, Germany, and afterwards returned to New York to continue his graduate studies at Columbia University until 1959.
Rothenberg began his literary career working primarily as a translator in the late 1950s, going on to translate a multitude of world literature, including works by Paul Celan, Vítezslav Nezval and Pablo Picasso. He founded the Hawk’s Well Press in 1959 and, with it, the magazine “Poems from the Floating World.” He remained in New York City teaching, writing and publishing until 1972, when he moved to the Allegany Seneca Reservation. After teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for 21st Century Studies from 1974 to 1976, Rothenberg moved to California and began teaching at UC San Diego the year after.
As a tenured professor with dual appointments in the Department of Visual Arts and Department of Literature, Rothenberg helped strengthen the bridge between literary production and criticism, history and studio art. During his nearly 25 years at the university, he served as chair of Visual Arts for three years and helped develop the Department of Literature’s Creative Writing Program and the New Writing Series, which brought visiting poets to campus for readings and talks. Rothenberg retired as a professor emeritus in 1998.
Rothenberg is survived by his wife and collaborator of more than 70 years, Diane; son, Matthew, and his wife, Nancy Tobin; and granddaughters Sadie and Lily. A memorial in his honor is currently being planned for the fall at UC San Diego.
