Dante in China

In John Barr's poems, the ancient masters encounter the modern world. Dante on a beach in China beholds the Inferno: “Flaring well gas night and day, / towers rise as if to say, / Pollution can be beautiful.” Bach’s final fugue informs all of nature. Villon is admonished by an aging courtesan. Aristotle finds “Demagogues are the insects of politics. / Like water beetles they stay afloat / on surface tension, they taxi on iridescence.” And his afterlife: “When three-headed Cerberus greeted him / Socrates replied: I won’t need / an attack dog, thank you. I married one.”• Author is first president of the Poetry Foundation (2004–2013)

• Author is highly respected in the poetry community

• Includes an introduction by revered poet Ilya Kaminsky

• Will appeal to fans of formalist poetry, Dana Gioia

• National publicity efforts targeting:

+Industry journals such as Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, Kirkus, Bookforum, and ShelfAwareness

+Local newspapers and journals to the author

+National blogs and podcasts such as Salon, Slate, The Rumpus, Buzzfeed Books, Huffington Post, Barnes & Noble Review, NPR

+Publications the author has written for, been featured in, or whose work has been reviewed in

+Schools and organizations the author is associated with

• Marketing to bookstores, libraries, book clubs, and universities

• Article pitches by author to major industry publications, newspapers, and blogs

• Author and book signing at the 2017 Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference

• Multi-city book tour

• Promotion online through the author’s website

• E-newsletter promotion to several-thousand-plus contacts

• Promotion through social media to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Amazon