Fonds MsC-145 - Syd Zolf fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Syd Zolf fonds

General material designation

  • Textual records
  • Records in electronic form (born-digital)

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

MsC-145

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 2007-2014 (Creation)
    Creator
    Zolf, Syd

Physical description area

Physical description

4 m of textual records and electronic records

Publisher's series area

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

(1968-)

Biographical history

Syd (formerly Rachel) Zolf’s artistic practice explores materialist questions about memory, history, knowledge, subjectivity and the conceptual limits of language and meaning. Zolf’s work queerly enacts how ethics founders on the shoals of the political, imagining other possibilities of sociality, space, and time.

Their books of poetry include Human Resources (2007, Coach House Books), Neighbour Procedure (2010, Coach House Books), Janey’s Arcadia (2014, Coach House Books), and Social Poesis (2019, Wilfrid Laurier University Press). Their book No One's Witness: A Monstrous Poetics (2021, Duke University Press) was a finalist for the 2022 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism. They won a 2018 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the 2008 Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and have been a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the Raymond Souster Memorial Award. Their film version of Janey’s Arcadia has shown at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and other venues. Among their many collaborations, they wrote the film The Light Club of Vizcaya: A Women’s Picture, directed by New York artist Josiah McElheny, which premiered at Art Basel Miami; and they conducted the first collaborative MFA in Creative Writing ever, The Tolerance Project. They have taught at New York’s The New School and the University of Calgary and have completed a PhD in Philosophy, Art and Social Thought at the European Graduate School.

Custodial history

Records were in the custody of Syd Zolf prior to their acquisition by Simon Fraser University Library Special Collections and Rare Books in 2014.

Scope and content

Fonds consists of research sources, drafts, correspondence, interviews, journals, magazines, teaching files, essay files, grant applications, and tax information. Records document Zolf's work as a poet, critic, editor, essayist, filmmaker and professor at the New School and University of Calgary. People with whom Zolf regularly corresponds include poets Charles Bernstein, Anne Waldman, Michael Davidson, Rodrigo Toscano, Erin Moure, Joan Retallack; theorist Judith Butler; artists Josiah McElheny, Zoe Leonard and Moyra Davey, and publisher Alana Wilcox.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

    Location of originals

    Availability of other formats

    Restrictions on access

    This fonds has not been processed. Restrictions on access may apply; consult staff for more information.

    Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

    Works in this fonds are under copyright. Researchers are required to secure permission from the copyright holders for usage of this material, except for those covered by fair dealing.

    Finding aids

    Generated finding aid

    Associated materials

    Related materials are at York University's Clara Thomas Archives. http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000538.htm

    Related materials

    Accruals

    Alternative identifier(s)

    Standard number

    Standard number

    Access points

    Subject access points

    Place access points

    Name access points

    Genre access points

    Control area

    Description record identifier

    Institution identifier

    Rules or conventions

    Rules for Archival Description

    Status

    Published

    Level of detail

    Dates of creation, revision and deletion

    Created January 12, 2016. SS
    Updated September 28, 2023. AT

    Language of description

      Script of description

        Sources

        Accession area