Editor's Corner

Mark Doty, School of the Arts, poems: Incisive and transcendent, Doty’s seventh collection contemplates the creative process and eternal questions of love and loss, desire and despair. (HarperCollins)

Stratis Haviaras, translation of The Canon, poems by C. P. Cavafy: Haviaras’s marvelous new translations of the one hundred fifty-four poems Cavafy published during his lifetime resonate, as Seamus Heaney says in his introduction, with “the abundance and excitement of . . . restoration.” (Hermes)

Christopher Tilghman, Roads of the Heart, a novel: In Tilghman’s generous and powerful novel, a man and his father—a former Maryland senator—journey on the road and discover the resilient truths of their family. (Random)

Alice Hoffman, Blackbird House, stories: Beautiful and haunting, these twelve interconnected narratives span a dozen lives over the course of two hundred years—all inhabitants of a house on a small farm in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who are transformed by love and passion. (Doubleday)

Richard Tillinghast, Poetry and What Is Real, essays: Sure to be a seminal work, Tillinghast’s engaging book discusses British and American modernists such as Yeats and Auden and neglected masters like John Crowe Ransom. (Michigan)

Fanny Howe, On the Ground, poems: In this bold, yearning new collection, Howe responds to the contrast between American imperialist goals and the realities of life lived “on the ground.” Infused with moving clarity, these poems have unassailable urgency. (Graywolf)

Derek Walcott, The Prodigal, poems: Walcott presents another masterwork that is a journey through physical and mental landscapes, a sweeping yet intimate epic. (FSG)

Carl Phillips, Coin of the Realm, essays: In this generous and sensual collection, with pieces ranging in subject from Plath to race, Phillips luminously argues that the currency that most holds weight, both in art and life, includes beauty, risk, and authority—values of meaning and complexity that all too often go disregarded. (Graywolf)

Margot Livesey, Banishing Verona, a novel: A shy housepainter and a pregnant radio show host begin an affair in Livesey’s radiant, delicious new novel, and then they’re immediately separated, setting them off in transatlantic pursuit. (Holt)