Editor's Corner

Carl Phillips, Riding Westward, poems: In this startling and distinctive eighth collection, Phillips meditates on that space where the forces of will and imagination collide with sexual and moral conduct. (FSG)

Robert Pinsky, First Things to Hand, poems: This chapbook serves as a kind of literate anthropology, but is also vintage Pinsky: casually erudite, charged with steady passion, a pleasure to read. (Sarabande)

Martín Espada, The Republic of Poetry, poems: The republic in Espada’s eighth collection is a glorious place of odes and elegies, memory and history, miracles and justice. (Norton)

Richard Ford, The Lay of the Land, a novel: In this triumphant follow-up to Independence Day, Frank Bascombe returns, acutely in thrall, as always, to life’s endless complexities. (Knopf)

Mary Gordon, The Stories of Mary Gordon, stories: These forty-one pieces, half of which are new or have never been collected, masterfully capture the nuances of modern life. (Pantheon)

Marilyn Hacker, Essays on Departure, poems: This book gathers twenty-five years of elegant, delectable work from eight books, as well as translations and new poems. (Carcanet)

Yusef Komunyakaa, Gilgamesh, verse play: With playwright Chad Garcia, Komunyakaa has refashioned a classic Sumerian legend into a vibrant and compelling verse play. (Wesleyan)

Maxine Kumin, Mites to Mastodons, children’s poems: A fascinating cornucopia of poems that exudes whimsical affection for all the creatures in our kingdom. Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. (Houghton Mifflin)

Paul Muldoon, Horse Latitudes, poems: This magnificent new collection presents us with fields of battle and fields of debate in which we often seem to be at a standstill. (FSG)