Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets

Back Cover

CREATIVE WRITING / POETRY “Mentor and Muse is perhaps the most complete recounting of the various ways poets find themselves elected and pursued by their art. While many of the essays focus on elements of craft, their real subjects are inspiration and how poetry casts its mysterious spell.” —Michael Collier, author of Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence “Anyone who has ever wondered about the importance to poets of the placement of a single punctuation mark, or why they grow so excited about the feel of a word in the mouth or the shape of an image in the mind’s eye, will find an answer in this generous collection of essays.” —Kate Daniels, Vanderbilt University For this collection of twenty-nine insightful essays, editors Blas Falconer, Beth Martinelli, and Helena Mesa have brought together some of today’s leading poetic minds to create an illuminating and unique anthology that unlocks the secrets of writing and revising poetry. The essays include the full text of the poems discussed and detailed, relevant writing exercises that allow students the opportunity to directly implement the strategies they have learned. While many advanced topics such as authenticity, discordant music, and prosody are covered, this highly readable volume is as user-friendly as it is informative. Blas Falconer teaches poetry and memoir at Austin Peay State University. He is the author of A Question of Gravity and Light. Beth Martinelli’s poems appear in numerous literary magazines, including The Threepenny Review, Bellingham Review, and Pleaides. Her chapbook, To Darkness, was published in 2007. Helena Mesa is an associate professor of English at Albion College. She is the author of Horse Dance Underwater. Southern Illinois University Press 1915 University Press Drive Mail Code 6806 Carbondale, IL 62901 www.siupress.com $29.95 usd isbn 0-8093-2989-1 isbn 978-0-8093-2989-2 Printed in the United States of America Cover design by Mary Rohrer ...