Joe Brainard’s work occupies the literal margins of New York school poetry, while also figuratively influencing its aesthetic margins, shaping the school from both within and without. Brainard was not only an important illustrator and friend to many New York school poets, he was also a respected collage artist, miniature artist, cartoonist, avid letter writer and serious poet. As the canon of avant-garde American poetry warmly embraces his poetry alongside his art, the field of literary criticism is freshly responding with enthusiasm to Brainard’s literary contribution with sophisticated scholarship and first-hand accounts which attend to both his textual and visual nuances. This collection offers the first place for the importance of Brainard’s poetry, collaborations and art to be recognised for their contribution and influence, all in one place. Features series of established and new voices in contemporary American poetrySelected essays all focus on writing but transgress disciplinary lines to also incorporate consideration of Brainard’s visual practice at the same timeSuggests Brainard’s work informingly lined, bound , and shaped the poetics of American avant-gardeShifts critical attention to Brainard’s writing (while also attending to his well known comics and collages)Offers further analysis of Brainard’s art and work as uniquely queer in aesthetic practice