Coming Soon: Beatdom 26

The Allen Ginsberg special issue goes on sale next month.

UPDATE: Beatdom 26 is now on sale. See this post for more details.

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Next month, we will publish Beatdom #26: The Allen Ginsberg Special. It will be released on June 3, which is the 100^th anniversary of the birth of the Beat poet. Here is the cover, which was made by Waylon Bacon:

Everything in this issue will relate to Ginsberg and we’ve tried to cover as much of his life as possible. There are essays on his mid-sixties auto-poesy experiments, his time in England, his late poetry as it relates to Walt Whitman, his friendships with other poets, his family, his depictions of death, and much more.

This is by far our longest issue. In fact, in terms of word count, it is double the length of our usual issues and at 400 pages will be more of a book than a typical literary journal. However, that seemed unavoidable given his immense significance.

Here is a list of contents. Some of these defy easy categorisation, so there are essays that include poetry, memoirs mixed with artwork, archival documents, etc. that don’t neatly fit the groupings. Again, that seems appropriate for this sort of project.

Beatdom 26 Contents

Essays, Memoirs, and Interviews

• “Allen Ginsberg on the Road to the Royal Albert Hall,” by Leon Horton

• “A Decisive Influence on my Adolescent Nervous System: Allen Ginsberg’s Performances in Austria 1980 and their Impact,” by Thomas Antonic

• “Allen Ginsberg and Christian Loidl: Previously Unpublished Conversation at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, July 16th, 1990,” edited by Thomas Antonic

• “Garrulous to the Very Last: A Comparison of the Late Poems of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg,” by Matt Theado

• “Poetry: The Ginsberg Family Legacy to Themselves and the World,” by Ryan Mathews

• “American Poet Allen Ginsberg: A Memory,” by Nina Zivancevic

• “Direct Contact with Living: Ginsberg’s Ethics of Witness,” by Immanuel Witt Diamant

• “Ginsberg’s Observational Spontaneity: From Travel Journaling to Auto-Poesy,” by Michael Daniel Breger

• “Considering Allen Ginsberg as Spiritual Teacher,” by Barbara Schmitz

• “Lessons on Style from the Work of Allen Ginsberg: Eight Techniques for Creating Memorable Political Poems,” by Eliot Katz

• “Disembodied Poetics: A Memoir of Allen Ginsberg at Hollyhock Farm,” by Colin James Sanders

• “Herbert Huncke and Allen Ginsberg,” archival documents provided by Jerome Poynton

• “Twice Around Allen: An Interview with Bob Rosenthal and Peter Hale,” by Leon Horton

• “Allen Ginsberg at Primrose Hill: Ah! Sunflower,” by Jack Ryan

• “On Melancholy, Art, and the Meaning of Life while I’m Thinking about Ginsberg,” by Kitti Jakobovits

• “Allen Ginsberg X Richard Hell,” by René van der Voort and Mr. Pelham

• “Illinois Jacquet, Allen Ginsberg, Istvan Eörsi, and my Father,” by Mark Scott

• “The Beat, the Boho, and the House That ‘Howl’ Built: The Lifetime Friendship of Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti,” by Ryan Mathews

• “I’m With You In Rockland: Allen Ginsberg’s Psychiatric Experience,” by Andy Marin

• “Our sketches will come to life: Remembering Allen Ginsberg Through the Poetry of Eliot Katz,” by Giordana Bruno

• “My Three Allens,” by Don Linder

• “Wounded Mind, Wounded World: Death and War in the Life and Poetry of Allen Ginsberg,” by Alexandre Ferrere

• “America, Give A Shit! Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky & Steven Taylor Live in Graz 1980: A Review,” by David S. Wills

Poetry and Art

• “Letter to Allen on the State of the State, March 2026,” by Eliot Katz

• “For Allen Ginsberg,” by Arlene Tribbia

• “Ginsberg, Corso, and Me,” by Russell Dupont

• “Allen Ginsberg Wrote Wichita Vortex Sutra For Me,” by Dave Thompson

• “Allen Ginsberg,” by Jeff Goldberg

• “A Feminist Poem for Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky,” by Andrea Dee

• “Haiku after ‘Wales Visitation’,” by Paul Chambers

• “Another Our Father,” by Ralph La Charity

• “The Letters of Allen Ginsberg: An Artistic Interpretation,” by Joel Lipman

• Photos of Allen Ginsberg by Michele Corleone, D.S. Black, and Greg Masters

• Paintings and memoir, by Jonathan Collins

As you can see, it is more of a book-length anthology than an issue of a literary journal. However, we think it is a fitting tribute to the man at the centre of the Beat Generation, a complex figure whose life and work contained multitudes.

Beatdom #26 can be pre-ordered here. It will go on sale June 3, at which point it will be available via the usual online outlets. We will also make a PDF copy available through a “pay what you can afford” model. We do not want anyone to miss out because of financial or geographic constraints. We also offer discounts for bulk purchases, bookstores, and educational institutions.

Due to the length of this issue of Beatdom, I chose not to include my own intended contribution, a long essay on Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Rexroth. I have published it here on Substack instead:

Honest Advice Wanted: Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Rexroth

More News & Publications

Obviously, Beatdom is not the only organisation celebrating Ginsberg’s 100^th birthday. The Allen Ginsberg Estate has celebrations planned, which you can learn about on their website. There are several events, including one hosted by the Poetry Project. This is organised by Eliot Katz and Peter Hale.

San Francisco’s Counterculture Museum will also put on a week of celebrations marking not only Ginsberg’s centennial but the museum’s one-year anniversary.

Allen Ginsberg in Context was recently published by Cambridge University Press. You can order that here. This includes a wide range of essays by numerous Beat experts, including Kurt Hemmer, Oliver Harris, Jonah Raskin, and Barry Miles.

Ginsberg’s Selected Poems also has a new edition with a wonderful new cover featuring a photo of Allen as a young man. Check it out. There is also a new Ginsberg book from Isolarii called AH!MERICA. Here’s the publisher page for that.

There is a new Allen Ginsberg recording coming out on vinyl this month (May 15). It includes liner notes by Thomas Antonic. Pre-order it here.

Speaking of Antonic, his long-awaited book about the three wives of William S. Burroughs comes out next month. An excerpt can be found here and the book can be pre-ordered here. (We are doing the final print checks, so we appreciate the patience of those who pre-ordered long ago. Copies will go out very soon.)

Marc Olmsted’s collection, Beat Dharma, comes out from Beatdom Books on Ginsberg’s birthday as well. This volume includes his writings on Buddhism and the Beat Generation, with a focus on Allen Ginsberg. It can be pre-ordered here.

If you wish to obtain review copies of these or any of our forthcoming books, get in touch.

Some of our forthcoming titles. We have others lined up but they do not yet have cover art.

.The Beats will be represented at Gonzofest (a Hunter S. Thompson celebration) in July, with a panel discussion that includes Kurt Hemmer, Ron Whitehead, Brian Hassett, Peter Richardson, and me. Come along if you’re in New York on July 17.

I am sure there is much more that I have overlooked but there is a lot to keep track of this year. Feel free to mention any other Ginsberg celebrations or publications I’ve missed in the comments below.