Editor's Shelf

Maura Stanton recommends Swamp Candles, poems by Ralph Burns: “In his new book, Ralph Burns fuses the two major strands in American poetry. His spare images dazzle us with their precision, while his colloquial voice moves us with its vital rhythms and deep emotions.” (Univ. of Iowa)

James Welch recommends Philadelphia Flowers, poems by Roberta Hill Whiteman: “Once in a great while, a poet, like an eagle, catches a draft and soars to new heights. Philadelphia Flowers is that draft, and Roberta Hill Whiteman is that poet. This is an important, beautifully crafted book of poems by one of America’s brightest poets.”…

Philip Levine recommends Picnic, Lightning, poems by Billy Collins: “For some years now Billy Collins has been our most delightful poet, someone who handles his lines with superb grace and an unerring ear and whose personal take on the world can make the reader laugh out loud and beg for more. But careful readers of…

Dan Wakefield recommends Playing the Game, a novel by Alan Lelchuk (Baskerville): “This novel has been neglected and deserves to be read. A wonderful and entertaining insight into U.S. sports, with a coach who uses Thoreau, Whitman, and Francis Parkman as inspirational reading for halftime pep talks.”

DeWitt Henry recommends Rabbit Fever, stories by Geoffrey Clark: “Geoffrey Clark’s new collection, Rabbit Fever, is rich with terrible beauties. His mature prose is fresh with sensory texture, sonority, wit, hard-learned truths, and precisely dramatized voice. The progress through the collection as well as the upper Michigan setting is reminiscent of Hemingway’s Men Without Women,…

Andre Dubus recommends Moving Violations, a memoir by John Hockenberry (Hyperion): “You don’t have to be in a wheelchair to love this book, which reaches a conclusion about the U.S. that I’ve never read before.”

Ann Beattie recommends Reader’s Block, a novel by David Markson: “Finally: a fictional sequel to Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland.’ Markson’s novel advances by allusion and cumulative effect, like a big snowball going downhill (and it’s impossible to read without realizing that the twentieth century has gone the same way). This is really a work of genius:…

Maura Stanton recommends My Shining Archipelago, poems by Taluikki Ansel: “Ansel’s poems are surprising and imaginative, filled with fresh insight into the natural world. Winner of the 1996 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition.” (Yale)

Philip Levine recommends Reign of Snakes, poems by Robert Wrigley: “Robert Wrigley has been a fine poet through four previous books; his last, In the Bank of the Beautiful Sins, was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Prize. In this new book he has become someone else, someone who has wandered into a ferocious cave…