American Poetry Now

Title Page, Copyright

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Contents

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Introduction

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pp. xix-xxviii

This book commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Pitt Poetry Series and the thirtieth year of my editorship of it. Over the years the series has become “a republic of many voices,” which reflects not only many of the forms and styles of American poetry, but the various backgrounds of American poets—in terms of gender, race...

Maggie Anderson

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pp. 1-7

Maggie Anderson is the author of four books of poems: Windfall: New and Selected Poems, A Space Filled with Moving, Cold Comfort, and Maggie Anderson: Greatest Hits 1984–2004. She is the editor or coeditor of several books, including Hill Daughter, the new and selected poems of Louise McNeill. She...

Dorothy Barresi

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pp. 8-15

Dorothy Barresi is the author of three books of poetry, All of the Above, The Post-Rapture Diner, winner of an American Book Award, and Rouge Pulp. Her awards include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes. She is professor of English at California State...

Quan Barry

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pp. 16-22

Quan Barry teaches at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of Controvertibles and Asylum, which won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship as well as a 2003 Pushcart Prize...

Jan Beatty

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pp. 23-30

Jan Beatty, the author of Boneshaker and Mad River, is the recipient of the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Beatty hosts and produces Prosody, a public radio show on NPR affiliate WYEP-FM featuring the work of national writers. She...

Robin Becker’s

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pp. 31-37

Robin Becker’s six collections of poems include Domain of Perfect Affection, The Horse Fair, All-American Girl, and Giacometti’s Dog. In 2001, The Frick Art and Historical Center published Venetian Blue, a limited-edition chapbook of her poems about graphic art. Professor of English at The Pennsylvania...

Richard Blanco

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pp. 38-44

Richard Blanco was made in Cuba, assembled in Spain, and imported to the United States—meaning his mother, seven months pregnant, and the rest of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid, where he was born. Only forty-five days later, the family emigrated once more and eventually...

Christopher Bursk

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pp. 45-50

Christopher Bursk is the author of nine poetry collections, including The First Inhabitants of Arcadia and The Improbable Swervings of Atoms. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Pew Charitable Trusts. A grandfather of six, he...

Anthony Butts

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pp. 51-57

Anthony Butts is the author of Male Hysteria; Little Low Heaven, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award; Evolution; and Fifth Season. He has been a member of the creative writing faculty at Carnegie Mellon University since 2001...

Lorna Dee Cervantes

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pp. 58-65

Lorna Dee Cervantes is the author of From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger and Emplumada, which won an American Book Award. She is also coeditor of Red Dirt, a cross-cultural poetry journal, and her work has been included in many anthologies including...

Wanda Coleman

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pp. 66-71

Wanda Coleman’s recent books include Ostinato Vamps, Wanda Coleman—Greatest Hits 1966–2003, and The Riot Inside Me: More Trials & Tremors, and her poems have been included in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, and...

Billy Collins

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pp. 72-80

Billy Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate in June 2001 and reappointed to the post in 2002. His collections of poetry include The Trouble with Poetry; Nine Horses; Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems; Picnic, Lightning; The Art of Drowning; and Questions About Angels. His work has been...

Mark Cox

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pp. 81-87

Mark Cox teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at University of North Carolina–Wilmington and in the Vermont College MFA Program. His honors include a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Pushcart Prize, and numerous fellowships. He is the author of three books of...

Jim Daniels

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pp. 88-94

Jim Daniels’s books of poems include Street, with the photographs of Charlee Brodsky; Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems; Blessing the House; Blue Jesus; No Pets; M-80; Punching Out; and Places/Everyone. He is also the author of eight chapbooks of poetry, two books of short stories, two screenplays...

Chard deNiord

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pp. 95-100

Chard deNiord is the author of Night Mowing, Sharp Golden Thorn, and Asleep in the Fire. He is an associate professor of English at Providence College and directs the low-residency MFA program in poetry at New England College. He lives in Putney, Vermont...

Toi Derricotte

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pp. 101-107

Toi Derricotte has published four books of poems, Tender, Captivity, Natural Birth, and The Empress of the Death House, and a memoir, The Black Notebooks, which won numerous awards and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her honors include two fellowships in poetry from...

Denise Duhamel

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pp. 108-116

Denise Duhamel’s most recent books are Two and Two and Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems. She coedited, with Nick Carbo, Sweet Jesus: Poems about the Ultimate Icon, and, with Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad, Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry. A recipient...

Russell Edson

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pp. 117-122

Russell Edson lives in Connecticut with his wife, Frances. His books include, among others, Appearances; A Stone Is Nobody’s; The Very Thing That Happens; The Brain Kitchen; What a Man Can See; The Childhood of an Equestrian; The Clam Theater; Ridderen af Gyngehesten; The Falling Sickness...

Lynn Emanuel

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pp. 123-129

Lynn Emanuel is the author of Hotel Fiesta, The Dig, and Then, Suddenly—, which won the Eric Matthieu King Award from the Academy of American Poets. She has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Bennington Writers’ Conference, The Warren Wilson Program in Creative Writing, and...

Peter Everwine

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pp. 130-136

Peter Everwine is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Collecting the Animals, which won the Lamont Poetry Prize (now the James Laughlin Award). He retired from California State University, Fresno, in 1992...

Edward Field

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pp. 137-144

Edward Field’s books of poetry include Magic Words: Poems; Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems 1963–1992; New and Selected Poems from the Book of My Life; A Full Heart, nominated for the Lenore Marshall Prize; and Stand Up, Friend, with Me, which was the 1962 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of...

Daisy Fried

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pp. 145-151

Daisy Fried is the author of My Brother Is Getting Arrested Again, a finalist for the James Laughlin Prize, and She Didn’t Mean to Do It, which won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Her other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a Pew Fellowship. She is currently the...

Barbara Hamby

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pp. 152-158

Barbara Hamby is the author of Babel, winner of the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, Delirium, which won the Vassar Miller Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, and the Kate Tufts Award; and The Alphabet of Desire, which won the New York University Poetry Prize and...

C. G. Hanzlicek

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pp. 159-166

C. G. Hanzlicek is the author of eight books of poetry, including Against Dreaming and The Cave: Selected and New Poems. He has translated Native American songs in A Bird’s Companion, and poems from Czech in Mirroring: Selected Poems of Vladimir Holan, which won the Robert Payne Award from the...

Bob Hicok

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pp. 167-175

Bob Hicok, assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech University, is the author of This Clumsy Living, Insomnia Diary, Animal Soul, Plus Shipping, and The Legend of Light. He is the recipient of the Felix Pollak Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and two Pushcart Prizes, and a finalist...

Gray Jacobik

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pp. 176-181

Gray Jacobik is a painter and poet who lives in Deep River, Connecticut. Her collections include Brave Disguises, winner of the Associated Writing Programs Poetry Prize; The Surface of Last Scattering, winner of the X. J. Kennedy Prize; and The Double Task, winner of the Juniper Prize. She is on the...

Julia Kasdorf

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pp. 182-189

Julia Kasdorf has published two collections of poetry, Eve’s Striptease and Sleeping Preacher, which won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and the Great Lakes Award for New Writing. She is also the author of a collection of essays, The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life, and a biography...

Jesse Lee Kercheval

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pp. 190-196

Jesse Lee Kercheval is the author of nine books, including the poetry collections Dog Angel and World as Dictionary; two story collections, Alice in Dairyland, which won the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and The Dogeater, which won the Associated Writing Programs Award in Short...

Etheridge Knight

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pp. 197-205

Etheridge Knight, widely regarded as one of America’s most prominent and liveliest poets, was born in Corinth, Mississippi, in 1931. His books include The Essential Etheridge Knight; For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide; A Poem for Brother Man; The Idea of Ancestry; and Poems from Prison. Knight received...

Sandra Kohler

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pp. 206-210

Sandra Kohler is the author of The Ceremonies of Longing, winner of the Associated Writing Programs Poetry Prize, and The Country of Women. She has taught extensively at levels from elementary to university. The recipient of numerous awards, she lives with her husband in Selinsgrove, in central...

Ted Kooser

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pp. 211-218

Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006, was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939 . He was educated in the Ames public schools, at Iowa State University, and the University of Nebraska. His collections of poetry include Flying at Night, Poems 1965–1985; Delights & Shadows; Winter Morning Walks...

Larry Levis

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pp. 219-226

Larry Levis was born in Fresno, California, in 1946. His books of poems include Wrecking Crew, which won the United States Award from the International Poetry Forum; The Afterlife, which won the Lamont Award from the American Academy of Poets; The Dollmaker’s Ghost, winner of the...

Shara McCallum

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pp. 227-232

Shara McCallum is the author of two books of poems, Song of Thieves and The Water Between Us, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Originally from Jamaica, McCallum directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and teaches at Bucknell University. She is also on the faculty of the Stonecoast...

Peter Meinke

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pp. 233-240

Peter Meinke has published fifteen books of poetry, the most recent being The Contracted World. He is also the author of the short story collections The Piano Tuner and Unheard Music; a book on writing, The Shape of Poetry; and two children’s books in verse...

Malena Mörling

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pp. 241-249

Malena Mörling, assistant professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, is the author of Ocean Avenue and Astoria. She has translated works by the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, a selection of which appears in the collection...

Kathleen Norris

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pp. 250-256

Kathleen Norris is the author of five books of poetry—Journey, Little Girls in Church, The Middle of the World, Falling Off, and The Astronomy of Love—and three books of nonfiction listed as New York Times Notable Books of the Year—Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, The Cloister Walk, and...

Sharon Olds

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pp. 257-264

Sharon Olds’s books include Strike Sparks; Selected Poems 1980–2002; The Unswept Room, a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Dead and the Living, which was chosen as the Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets and received...

Alicia Suskin Ostriker

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pp. 265-272

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is a poet and critic whose previous volumes of poetry include The Imaginary Lover, which won the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America, and The Crack in Everything and The Little Space, Poems Selected and New 1968–1998, both National Book Award...

Minnie Bruce Pratt

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pp. 273-279

Minnie Bruce Pratt is the author of five books of poetry: The Sound of One Fork; We Say We Love Each Other; Crime Against Nature; Walking Back Up Depot Street, chosen as the Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and...

Paisley Rekdal

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pp. 280-286

Paisley Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee, and three books of poetry, A Crash of Rhinos, Six Girls Without Pants, and The Invention of the Kaleidoscope. Her honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and several...

Richard Shelton

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pp. 287-294

Richard Shelton is the author of ten books of poetry, including The Last Person to Hear Your Voice, The Other Side of the Story, Hohokam, and Selected Poems, 1969–1981, as well as the nonfiction books A Poet Goes to Hell: Three Decades as a Volunteer in Prison and Going Back to Bisbee, six chapbooks, and three...

Reginald Shepherd

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pp. 295-301

Reginald Shepherd is the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries. He is the author of five volumes of poetry: Fata Morgana; Otherhood, a finalist for the 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Wrong; Angel, Interrupted; and Some Are Drowning, winner of the 1993 Associated Writing Programs...

Cathy Song

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pp. 302-309

Cathy Song is the author of Cloud Moving Hands; Picture Bride, nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award; Frameless Windows; Squares of Light; and School Figures. Her work has been widely anthologized and has appeared on the buses of Atlanta, the subway cars of New York, and in...

Virgil Suárez

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pp. 310-318

Virgil Suárez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1962 . Since 1972 he has lived in the United States as a naturalized citizen. Suárez is the author of four novels, two collections of stories, two memoirs, and eight collections of poetry, including most recently 90 Miles: Selected and New. Currently he...

Ronald Wallace

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pp. 319-327

Ronald Wallace is the author of many books of poetry and criticism, including People and Dog in the Sun, The Makings of Happiness, and God Be with the Clown: Humor in American Poetry, and the editor of Vital Signs: Contemporary American Poetry from the University Presses. Wallace directs the creative writing...

Afaa Michael Weaver

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pp. 328-332

Afaa Michael Weaver is the author of ten books of poetry, including Plum Flower Dance, Multitudes, Sandy Point, The Ten Lights of God, and Water Song. His full-length play Rosa was produced in 1993 at Venture Theater in Philadelphia, and his short fiction appears in Gloria Naylor’s...

David Wojahn

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pp. 333-341

David Wojahn is professor of English and director of creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of Interrogation Palace: New and Selected Poems 1982–2004, Spirit Cabinet, The Falling Hour, Late Empire, Mystery Train, Glassworks, and Icehouse Lights. Wojahn is the recipient of three...

Dean Young

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pp. 342-350

Dean Young has published several books of poetry, including his 2005 collection, Elegy on Toy Piano, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. His collection Skid was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Prize. Young has received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships as well as a...

From The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser

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pp. 351-361

Muriel Rukeyser, who died in 1980, was a Guggenheim Fellow and a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets award, and president of PEN American Center, among many other honors. She also was...

Suggestions for Further Reading

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pp. 363-376