Editor's Corner

Fanny Howe, The Lyrics, poems: With each poem a lament formed in a place of rest, this intense and vital collection responds to Howe’s long-term commitment to social justice, weaving through the inconsistencies of the human soul and the inherent violence of humans. (Graywolf)

Cornelius Eady, Hardheaded Weather, new and selected poems: This exciting new collection both delineates the arc of the poet’s universe and highlights the range of his talents with sly, unsentimental, witty poems. (Marian Wood)

Maxine Kumin, Still to Mow, poems: In her seventeenth book of poetry, Kumin’s signature nature poems are luminously invigorated by darker human realities. Potently, she focuses on myriad subjects, including the pleasures of horse keeping, Dick Cheney’s “canned hunting,” and the disappointments and joys of marriage. (Norton)

Philip Levine, Tarumba, translation of poems by Jaime Sabines, with Ernesto Trejo: Sabines is a national treasure in Mexico, and this bilingual edition presents the full power of his secretive, wild, bittersweet poems, stepping into his streets, brothels, hospitals, and cantinas. (Sarabande)

Carl Phillips, Quiver of Arrows, selected poems: This generous selection from Phillips’s eight books showcases the twenty-year evolution of one of America’s most distinctive, original voices, meditating on desire and loss, mastery and subjugation, belief and doubt, sex and human reason. (FSG)

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a novel: In his first book for young adults, Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation for an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale received the 2007 National Book Award…

Andrea Barrett, The Air We Breathe, a novel: Barrett’s exquisite, much-anticipated new novel unfolds in the fall of 1916, when America was debating whether to enter the European war, and focuses on a group of tuberculosis patients in an isolated Adirondacks sanatorium. (Norton)

Amy Bloom, Away, a novel: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic story of young Lillian Leyb, who comes to American alone after her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom. (Random House)

Jane Hirshfield, After, poems: A luminous investigation into incarnation, transience, and our intimate connection with all existence. (HarperCollins)