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Praise for Previous Winners of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry
- University of North Texas Press
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67 Praise for Previous Winners of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry Circles Where the Head Should Be, by Caki Wilkinson “Playful and soulful, buoyant and mordant, snazzy and savvy—Caki Wilkinson ’s poems pull out all the stops, and revel in making the old mother tongue sound like a bright young thing. Lend her your ears and you’ll hear American lyric moxie in all its abounding gusto and lapidary glory, making itself new all over again.” —David Barber, Poetry Editor, The Atlantic “Circles Where the Head Should Be has its own distinctive voice, a lively intelligence , insatiable curiosity, and a decided command of form. These qualities play off one another in ways that instruct and delight. An irresistible book.” —J. D. McClatchy, author of Mercury Dressing: Poems, judge “Caki Wilkinson’s marvelous and marvelously titled Circles Where the Head Should Be contains poetry as dexterously written as any today. And beneath its intricate surface pleasures lie a fierce intelligence and a relentless imagination constantly discovering connections where none had been seen before. This is a stunning debut.” —John Koethe, author of Ninety-fifth Street, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize “Like Frost, Wilkinson believes in poem as performance, showing off her verve and virtuosity. She is the ‘Lady on a Unicycle,’ negotiating her difficult vehicle through the pedestrian crowd with ‘the easy lean achieved/ by holding on to nothing’—a joy to witness.” —A. E. Stallings, author of Archaic Smile and Hapax Stray Home, by Amy M. Clark: Two poems from Stray Home were selected by Garrison Keillor, host of A Prairie Home Companion and of The Writer’s Almanac, to be included in The Writer’s Almanac, broadcast May 28 and 29, 2010. “Stray Home is a great read. The poetic form found in its pages never feels forced or full of clichés. Whether you are a fan of formal verse or just like to ‘dabble,’ Stray Home is a collection to pick up.” —Good Reads 68 Club Icarus Ohio Violence, by Alison Stine: “In the mind, Ohio and violence may not be words immediately paired— pastoral cornfields, football fields, and deer versus the blood and splintered bone of a fight or a death. Yet Ohio Violence achieves that balance of the smooth and vivid simmer of images and the losses that mount in Alison Stine’s collection.” —Mid-American Review “Shot through with a keen resolve, Ohio Violence is an arresting, despairing book that alternately stuns and seduces.” —Rain Taxi “One comes away from Ohio Violence newly impressed with the contingency and instability of the hazardous universe that is our home; and impressed, as well, with the ability of these stark, memorable poems to distill that universe into language and to make of it a sad and haunting song.” —Troy Jollimore, Galatea Resurrects #13 Mister Martini, by Richard Carr: “This is a truly original book. There’s nothing extra: sharp and clear and astonishing. Viva!” —Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Fuel, judge The Next Settlement, by Michael Robins: “Michael Robins’ prismatic poems open windows, then close them, so we’re always getting glimpses of light that suggest a larger world. With never a syllable to spare, these poems are beautiful and haunting. I know of nothing like them.” —James Tate, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry “The Next Settlement is a finely honed, resonant collection of poems, sharp and vivid in language, uncompromising in judgment. The voice in this book is unsparing, often distressed, and involved in a world which is intrusive, violent, and deeply deceitful, where honesty and compassion are sought for in vain, and refuges for the mind are rare.” —Anne Winters, author of The Key to the City, judge re-entry, by Michael White: “Michael White’s third volume does what all good poetry does: it presents the sun-drenched quotidiana of our lives, and lifts it all into the sacred [3.90.187.11] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:44 GMT) 69 Club Icarus space of poetry and memory. He delights us with his naming, but he also makes us pause, long enough at least to take very careful stock of what we have. He makes us want to hold on to it, even as it trembles in the ether and dissolves.” —Paul Mariani, author of Deaths and Transfigurations, judge “Here is a book that explores the interplay between interior and exterior landscapes with such generous and beautifully crafted detail that readers will feel they are no longer...