Burning Deck began in 1961 as a little magazine. In 1961, poets were supposed to be in opposing camps, often inelegantly—and inaccurately—labeled 'academics' and 'beats'. The two most widely noted anthologies of the time (Donald Allen's The New American Poetry and what was known as "The Hall-Pack-Simpson"), both representing the period 1945-1960, do not contain a single poet in common. Burning Deck Magazine disregarded this split and presented a spread of poets wide enough that occasionally an author complained of being published in such unprogrammatic compall. Though advertised as a 'quinterly', the magazine, after only four issues, gave way to a series of chapbooks and—later, in part with the help of NEA grants—books of poetry and occasionally of short fiction. In 1984, Burning Deck merged with allART: Contemporary Arts Center, becoming the literature program of this non-profit organization. In 1992, we added a translation series (Série d'Ecriture: current French writing in English translation), in 1994 a second one (Dichten=: current German-language writing in English translation).