Joseph Simas: Shuffle (Introducing—Anime Titles)

The author in Shuffle has a way of conceptualizing elements of life, writing them into play, and deriving them, as one does, say, in mathematics. . . . Questions recur: Who is speaking? and to whom? Is this “it” already (or not yet) an “I”? Is this experience common or unique? By being shuffled and reshuffled, the cards reveal that they have always been the same, thus bringing to light a tender Impersonation of the Poet as Oneself.

   — Pascale Breton, filmmaker, Illumination (2004),

         Suite Armoricaine (2016)

Shuffle is a ticket to “the cinema in one’s head”—a porno theatre by day, a docu fest by night. Simas manipulates his paper dramas, shadow stories and gag songs until something comes up for real. What speaks here through “missing voices, inner sound” is after all nothing but the cries and whispers of history. Dream on—in order to wake up. I’m thankful to the deceitful elf lodged in this author for standing true before wars far away, so close.

  — Ivan Sokolov, poet

In Shuffle, Joseph Simas gifts us an expansive, architecturally rigorous meditation on form, fragmentation, memory, and perception. This is not a memoir but an index of near-remembrance; not a play, but its linguistic ghost. Simas weaves silence, glitch, and memory into a modular structure that feels as much performance score as poetry. Think a silence that reads you back. Think alongside the remnants of anime’s visual logic—not to explain but to gesture. To shuffle is to refuse sequence. To read this book is to listen to what meaning does when no one is watching. A welcome disturbance.

  — Adrian Lürssen, poet, Human Is to Wander (2022)

Books by Joseph Simas include Entire Days (Burning Deck, 1985), Sets (TELS Press, 1986), Aftersight (Rue d’Aboukir, 1987), and Kinderpart (Paradigm Press, 1989).

His full-length manuscript, Easy Lessons in Reading . . .is published in French as Premières leçons de lecture . . . (Créaphis/Royaumont, 1996). He is translator, most notably, of Mezza Voce (Post-Apollo, 1988) by Anne-Marie Albiach.

His poetry is anthologized in 49+1 Nouveaux poètes américains (Royaumont, 1991) and Writing from the New Coast (o·blēk, 1993). Numerous uncollected poems and translations are featured in Temblor, Hambone, Po&sie, ACTS, Tyuonyi, Poetics Journal, Raddle Moon, and Facebook to name a few sites.

He is founder and editor of Moving Letters Press (Paris, 1984-1990).