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Ellen Bryant Voigt, Shadow of Heaven, poems: Philip Levine submits: “Once again in her poetry, Voigt plumbs the stubbornness of the human spirit and the mysteries of the world in which it lives and dies. Although she surrenders none of her gift for storytelling, this new work is her most lyrical, and as always her…
Madeline DeFrees recommends A Girl from Zanzibar, a novel by Roger King: “London-born novelist Roger King, an immigrant to the U.S. with extensive experience on four continents, writes an absorbing tale of international intrigue in our increasingly globalized world. As an agricultural economist, largely in African countries, King worked for various United Nations agencies during…
Sue Miller, The Story of My Father, a memoir: In her first nonfiction book, Miller recounts the last few years of her father’s life as he succumbed to Alzheimer’s. Riveting, compassionate, and loving, the book not only brings her father to life, but also illuminates Miller’s own roles as daughter and writer. (Knopf)
Leaving Saturn Poems by Major Jackson. University of Georgia Press, $15.95 paper. Reviewed by Afaa M. Weaver. Major Jackson’s first collection, Leaving Saturn, is named for Sun Ra, the jazz composer and bandleader who claimed he had acquired his otherworldly gifts and powers on Saturn, where he’d been born. Invoking Sun Ra, you face all…
George Garrett recommends Naming the Afternoon, poems by Julia Johnson: “An outstanding first collection of fifty poems, highly praised by Kelly Cherry: ‘Julia Johnson is inventive and eccentric, a new voice speaking from a fresh perspective.’ Johnson was given a New Writing Award for poetry by the Fellowship of Southern Writers.” (LSU)
Charles Simic, The Voice at 3:00 A.M., poems: A selection of work from the past twenty years, along with some twenty new poems, this book gives us a remarkable survey of Simic’s singular poetic journey, which has been marked by his sardonic humor and moral lucidity. (Harcourt)
George Garrett recommends A Word in Your Ear, poems by Monroe Spears: “The late Monroe Spears (1916-1998) was one of the major critics and editors (The Sewanee Review) of our time. That he also wrote first-rate poetry was sometimes overlooked. As Daniel Hoffman has written about this volume: ‘Those who know Monroe Spears through his…
Marilyn Hacker recommends Forms of Gone, poems by Yerra Sugarman: ” Forms of Gone is a powerful first book by a poet mature in experience and worldview, whose strength is drawn at once from a unique perspective and a multilayered engagement with the counterpoint of syntax and poetic measure. Sugarman is the daughter of Shoah…
Frank Bidart recommends Notes from the Divided Country, poems by Suji Kwock Kim: "This is a brilliant, unerasable book, one of the most remarkable debuts I’ve ever read. It begins with the descent of the soul into flesh, which is also the descent into the catastrophic, tormenting history of family and nation. The poems as…
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