About

I’ve called my blog “new underground” because that’s one direction in which the Web has evolved: serving as an alternative to academic, commercial or official publication. Underground publication happened in the New York City poetry scene of the 1950s, in the Soviet Union samizdat movement, and today in Cuba and elsewhere. A good thing, I think: free speech, more information, greater access, less institutional interference.

My hope here is to create an unofficial forum where I can discuss with others what I’m reading and writing and things literary and/or cultural without having to pass dubious gatekeepers. I’ve been working as a writer virtually my whole adult life, but usually working to please others—editors, agents, publishers, clients, readers, etc. Here I hope to write what pleases me.

Please feel free to join in when the spirit moves you.

To learn about my published works and to read some of my essays, book reviews and articles, go to www.RickSkwiot.com.