"I believe that poetry, and perhaps every creative gesture, is an act of discovery. As such, it depends more on the map than the traveler."
Travis Macdonald (b. 1980) questions authorship with poems that are lively and whimsical without being frivolous, and which offer critique and reflection of the contemporary moment. "My current artistic concerns surround the creation and application of poetic procedures onto, into, and around language," he says. "These procedures can be both generative and manipulative." In works such as The O Mission Repo, which is created from The 9/11 Commission Report, Macdonald sets out "with an eye towards sculptural reconstruction through reduction, [creating] a parallel narrative that is both reflective of, and independent of the original form." In addition to his writing, Macdonald is the co-founder and co-editor of Fact-Simile Editions, a Philadelphia micro-press dedicated to publishing works of contemporary poetry that use mostly reclaimed or recycled materials. He received his M.F.A. from Naropa University in 2007.
