The Tender Buttons Response Project

Karren Alenier

Now that From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons is complete with all three volumes published and showcasing the work of over 90 living poets, the Steiny Road Poet (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) herewith provides all the pertinent details in one place. All three anthologies, Volume I Objects, Volume II Food, and Volume III Rooms appear in workbook format so that readers can participate by writing their own responses.

VOLUME I OBJECTS

Year Published by The Word Works : 2023

Number of Pages : 142

Cover Art : Grace Cavalieri, untitled

Advisors : Grace Cavalieri, Lisa Sewell, Nancy White, Bill Yarrow

Dedicated to : Ulla Dydo [one of the all-time Gertrude Stein experts who advised Karren Alenier when she was writing her libretto Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On]

Blurbs by:

—Al Filreis , author of 1960: When Art and Literature Confronted the Memory of World War II and Remade the Modern

— Joseph O. Legaspi , author of Threshold

—Barbara Will , author of Gertrude Stein, Modernism, and the Problem of Genius and Gertrude Stein, Bernard Faÿ, and the Vichy Dilemma

Poets who responded : Karren L. Alenier, Indran Amirthanayagam, Rae Armantrout, Mary Armour, Carrie
Bennett, Margo Berdeshevsky, Julien Berman, Andrea Carter Brown, Susana H. Case, Grace Cavalieri, Nikia Chaney, Roberto Christiano, Henry Crawford, Michael Davis, Denise Duhamel, Amy Feinstein, Barbara Goldberg, Harold M. Greenwald, Donald Illich, Jacqueline Johnson, Hiram Larew, JoAnne McFarland, Kevin McLellan, Nils Michals, Brad Richard, Margery M. Ross, Martha Sanchez-Lowery, Roger Sedarat, Lisa Sewell, Margo Taft Stever, Miles Waggener, Lillo Way, Nancy White, Carolyne Wright, Bill Yarrow, Burgi Zenhaeusern, & Jason Zuzga

Editor’s Comments : In Volume I Objects

—Find Gertrude Stein the scientist investigating things found in our world.

—Note that Stein’s text is divided into mostly short subpoems.

—Learn how the project began in connection with University of Pennsylvania professor Al Filreis’ MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) ModPo (Modern & American Contemporary Poetry).

—Discover why reading and interacting with Tender Buttons is fun.

VOLUME II FOOD

Year Published by The Word Works : 2024

Number of Pages : 152

Cover Art : JoAnne McFarland, Selfie with Swiss Chard

Advisors : Nathalie Anderson, Grace Cavalieri, Nancy White

Dedicated to : Linda Pastan [Karren Alenier’s first living poetry role model]

Blurbs by:

— Marjorie Perloff , author of Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetics

—Deborah M. Mix , co-editor of Approaches to Teaching the Works of Gertrude Stein

— Indran Amirthanayagam , author of The Runner’s Almanac

—Abdul Ali , author of Trouble Sleeping

Poets who responded : Karren L. Alenier, Nathalie Anderson, Holly Bass, Carrie Bennett, Tara Betts, John Bradley, Lee Ann Brown, Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Nicole Cooley, Jessica Cuello, Donna Denizé, Majda Gama, Bernadette Geyer, Michael Gushue, Kimiko Hahn, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Erica Kaufman, Annie Kim, Alyse Knorr, Lisa Lewis, Dora Malech, Fred Marchant, Marilyn McCabe, JoAnne McFarland, Kevin McLellan, Ron Mohring, Miles David Moore, Jenna Nesky, A.L. Nielsen, Susan Okie, Kim Roberts, Prartho Sereno, Elly Sullivan, J. C. Todd, Lillo Way, Nancy White, Anne Harding Woodworth, Bill Yarrow

Editor’s Comments : In Volume II Food

— Find Gertrude Stein the lover examining the pros and cons of a committed love relationship.

—Note that Stein’s text is divided into a few long texts but mostly short subpoems.

—Learn why Stein’s second section “Food” is pivotal to this great innovator’s emphasis on talking and listening and how this Steinian text with its use of the N word in “Dinner.” reaches out to our turbulent time that forces us to confront White Nationalism and racism.

—Discover why Alenier’s advice: “Don’t go into the Steinian Woods alone” is both playful and serious.

VOLUME III ROOMS

Year Published by The Word Works : 2026

Number of Pages : 138

Cover Art : Ellen Driscoll, “The Loophole of Retreat”

Advisors : Nathalie Anderson, Grace Cavalieri, Nancy White

Dedicated to : Nancy Rhodes [who developed and premiered the Karren Alenier & William Banfield opera Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early

Blurbs by:

— David Keplinger , author of Ice

— E. Ethelbert Miller , author of The Little Book of E

—Jan Freeman , author of Blue Structure

Poets who responded :  Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Karren L. Alenier, Nathalie Anderson, E.J. Antonio, Anne Becker, Tara Betts, Sheila Black, Traci Brimhall, Laura Cesarco Eglin, Ellen Aronofsky Cole, Henry Crawford, T. De Los Reyes, Majda Gama, Le Hinton, W. Luther Jett, Jacqueline Johnson, AJ Leigh, M. Mack, Ed Madden, Nino McQuown, Jenna Nesky, Jean Nordhaus , Lisa Sewell, Jeddie Sophronius, Alina Stefanescu, Julie Marie Wade, Fritz Ward, Sandra Yannone, Katherine E. Young

Editor’s Comments : In Volume III Rooms

— Find Gertrude Stein the storyteller hinting at big truths and underlying myths.

— Note that Stein’s text is one long poem of 85 stanzas.

—Hear the sound of Stein speaking to her beloved Alice Babette Toklas about their future together, about their union, about the home they are making together.

—Discover why Tender Buttons with its threads of philosophy and linguistics should be viewed as abstract art hanging on a wall and that what you see is neither right nor wrong.

The Steiny Road Poet expects that Karren Alenier might be interrogated as to why she wrote so many responses (about 20 per anthology). To this question, she answers that she had to take her own advice and not go into the Steinian Woods alone (first to share the fun and later to endure the difficulty of stones and thorns), but also, she had to demonstrate enthusiasm and unrelenting leadership to honor Gertrude Stein’s insistence about talking and listening with her audience.

Another pointed question of interest is: in this age of Artificial Intelligence, what is the value of this freelance set of responses to Tender Buttons? The value of Alenier’s Tender Buttons project is that it slows down the process of addressing a major work of art to allow for a visceral opportunity to acquire insight and appreciation. Deep learning and familiarity takes time.

Undoubtedly, there will be other questions, maybe about the poets who agreed to participate in this project, maybe about how Alenier assigned the texts, maybe about the cover art for each book. In the meantime, Steiny hopes that this profile provides easy access to Tender Buttons, Gertrude Stein’s most mysterious work.