Larry Fagin : Smash the State & Have a Nice Day: A Larry Fagin Reader

The primary motivating thought behind this book is that some of the lists Larry Fagin shared with friends and students over the years might be of interest to others. His three most substantial lists—“Film Favorites,” “Poetry,” and the longest by far, “Prose”—are here accompanied by other, shorter lists and occasional pieces of various kinds: travel writing (both armchair and actual), notes for talks, interviews Fagin conducted with himself (like Marcel Duchamp’s bachelor, the list-maker grinds his own chocolate), and assorted writing exercises and prompts. Designed by Richard Tuttle.

There is no one comparable to Larry Fagin in cultural breadth or clarity of approach. He gets results." — Bill Berkson

I don't care to write criticism, as you can readily tell, but I do care to think about Larry and his writings. I would like to have a giant book of his poems to read instead of my head." — Ted Berrigan

Larry Fagin (1937–2017) was a poet, editor, and publisher, and a great admirer of Lora Logic. His books include Rhymes of a Jerk, Stabs, I’ll Be Seeing You: Poems 1962–1976, Dig & Delve (with Trevor Winkfield), Complete Fragments, and Eleven Poems for Philip Guston. His selected poems, Peaches & Gravy: Selected Poems 1966–2016, and his selected non-poems, Smash the State & Have a Nice Day: A Larry Fagin Reader, were edited for Cuneiform Press by Miles Champion.

Smash the State & Have a Nice Day was edited by Miles Champion and designed by Richard Tuttle. Typeset in Martin Majoor’s Scala by Kyle Schlesinger, this first edition is limited to 500 copies, of which thirty-three are signed by Champion and Tuttle. 

LIMITED EDITION: 33 copies signed and numbered by Champion and Tuttle
STANDARD EDITION: HARDCOVER. 5x12 inches. 216 pages. 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-950055-19-7