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Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Critical Writing. Responding to MEMOIR AND ESSAY Ron Silliman writes, "Michael Gottlieb saw it all, did it all & appears to have taken notes. MEMOIR AND ESSAY is a personal history of the evolution of Language poetry in New York City in the 1970s as viewed by one of its key innovators. Gottlieb's attention to detail & sensitivity to the interpersonal dynamics of the scene make this a crucial document for understanding progressive poetics in the late 20th century. Gottlieb's prose makes it a pleasure." Kasey Silem Mohammed adds, "A life in, of, and for poetry: Michael Gottlieb generously lays bare the one he has led, putting in plain terms the measures by which the discipline asserts itself as a constitutive force, a shaping regime of identity and counter-identity, community action and individual reflection. In his recounting of his own experience coming into poetry in 1970s New York, as well as his meditations on poet's work (the work of poetry itself and the work that poets do in the world), Gottlieb gives us an immensely valuable document in the annals of Language writing and contemporary literary autobiography generally."

Poetry. "In the continuing battle between life and death at the end of the century, Michael Gottlieb's GORGEOUS PLUNGE (poems) declares itself on the side of life. As a phenomenal account of self-consciousness within structures it can only partially authorize, Michael Gottlieb's work addresses the broad horizons of utopoia, the chilling defiles of the economy, and the scrutable immediacies of everyday life" Barrett Watten."

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. "We sit in our rooms. We write. We try to read. It begins to grow dark. We switch on the light. We wait for the world to come to us. Or, we don't. We start asking ourselves questions. Others arrive unbidden. One of the questions: what kind of jobs do we, should we, as poets, end up with while we do our real job?"

Poetry. "The Great Pavement" and "The Ulterior Parkways," the two long poems that make up Michael Gottlieb's NEW YORK, each consist of sixty brief sections that are by turns elegant, direct, gritty, oblique. They offer the reader a completely refreshed sense and sensibility. Like an extended "exercize" in tonal breath control, the familiar sights and sounds and aspirations of city life pass through the author's prose, refracted in the light of his prismatic feeling for the cultivated languages, informational hums, whines and clatters of urban life. Beneath the cosmetic verities of the quotidian, Gottlieb assays the shadows of ambition, the underpainting of memory, the bone structure of history, the masks of humor. What emerges is a generalized portrait of a particular place, as much talk as take, as much savvy as cool, a cartographic thrust and parry rhythm flush with stories, wised-up with experience. As grainy as the dots of a tabloid photo, the sentences in Gottlieb's NEW YORK make attention specific. They give us back a place we only thought we knew.

Poetry. "LOST AND FOUND is a read-this-&-change-your-life experience: the first great poetic work to emerge from the trauma of September 11. Imagine Frank O'Hara channeling Theodor Adorno with more than a little Marcel Duchamp to modulate the static into a whitenoise reverb feedback loop. It is, in fact, just like that & completely different: three radical works that test our limits as readers & as people. Michael Gottlieb's masterwork is one terrific book"-- Ron Silliman. Michael Gottlieb was born in the Bronx. He is the author of fourteen books of poetry, including NINETY-SIX TEARS and GORGEOUS PLUNGE, also available from SPD.

Meredith Mann is an actor. He isn't a star, that's not his lot. But through the dramatic arc of one step backward and two steps forward Mann, now at 50, stands at the pinnacle of acting success. A member of the core acting company at a well respected American regional theater: Oregon's Portland Repertory Theater.All should be well. But it isn't. “Merry” Mann is cracking up. He has troubling visions, hallucinations, premonitions; violent, dark and foreboding. A problem for anyone, but especially worrisome for an actor to endure during a live stage performance. Written by professional actor and director, Michael Alton Gottlieb, The Fourth Wall is not an inside scoop or treatise on acting, or the roles Mr. Mann plays or the art and craft of theater itself. Rather it's the story of a journeyman actor who breaks through the fourth wall of the 'multi-verse' in which we all live: an exploration of the realm where we experience the potential paths of our lives and where we choose which path manifests through unavoidable dreams, hallucinations and déjà vu. Teetering on the brink of sanity Mann is caught between the choices he makes for himself and those he inadvertently, and sometimes tragically, makes for others."The Fourth Wall is about a middle-aged actor on the cusp of fame, whose onstage visions portend personal apocalypse. By turns astonishing and thrilling, this novel does what the best books accomplish -- it takes us where we've never been, and makes the journey both compelling and unforgettable." Tom King, Emmy-winning TV writer.“A wild romp for those of us in theatre, those who would like to be and those who have wondered what it's like to live beyond the fourth wall. A fast-paced, suspense filled, spirited read enlivened by characters who stay with you long after you've put the book down.” Taylor Korobow, Artistic Director, Stray Dog Productions

Feynman's Tips on Physics is a delightful collection of Richard P. Feynman's insights and an essential companion to his legendary Feynman Lectures on Physics With characteristic flair, insight, and humor, Feynman discusses topics physics students often struggle with and offers valuable tips on addressing them. Included here are three lectures on problem-solving and a lecture on inertial guidance omitted from The Feynman Lectures on Physics. An enlightening memoir by Matthew Sands and oral history interviews with Feynman and his Caltech colleagues provide firsthand accounts of the origins of Feynman's landmark lecture series. Also included are incisive and illuminating exercises originally developed to supplement The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Robert B. Leighton and Rochus E. Vogt. Feynman's Tips on Physics was co-authored by Michael A. Gottlieb and Ralph Leighton to provide students, teachers, and enthusiasts alike an opportunity to learn physics from some of its greatest teachers, the creators of The Feynman Lectures on Physics.