I co-wrote this poetry collection/parody and illustrated it myself. It was a fun project during the boredom and anxiety of COVID-19 quarantine, and reflects what I learned during my English degree. I wrote it with my boyfriend, who is now my husband!
The Button Jar was published in February 2021 and was the first release from Pigeon Press. It was updated December 2023 with a new note in the introduction about AI and how Pigeon Press does not support or use AI technology.
About the Book
Poetry is an art form that can never be replicated by computers…right? That’s what Claire thought, too, until she encountered Gertrude Stein’s modernist poetry in her quest to obtain an English degree. The collection “Tender Buttons” destroyed her last two brain cells, and she could make neither head nor tail of what she felt to be nonsensical jumbles of words.
Teaming up with STEM major Lewis, the two created a program called the Gertrude Stein Generator that produced “poems” modeled after those in “Tender Buttons.” This collection details the creation of said program along with 50 of the best “poems” produced by it, with accompanying illustrations (they made Claire take an art class for her degree, too).
Claire and Lewis now collectively hold Bachelor’s degrees in English, French, Math, and Physics and remain unconvinced that modernist poetry cannot be written by computers. But why don’t you give it a read and decide for yourself?