New Books in Poetry | New Books Network

Steve Zeitlin, “The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness” (Cornell UP, 2016)

Steve Zeitlin
The Poetry of Everyday Life
Storytelling and the Art of Awareness
Cornell University Press, 2016

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Folklore New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Performing Arts New Books in Poetry New Books Network May 25, 2020 Rachel Hopkin

This is a book of encounters. Part memoir, part essay, and partly a guide to maximizing your capacity for fulfillment and expression, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness (Cornell University Press, 2016) taps into the artistic side of what we often take for granted: the... Read More

Archana Venkatesan, “Endless Song: Tiruvaymoli” (Penguin, 2020)

Archana Venkatesan
Endless Song
Tiruvaymoli
Penguin, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Hindu Studies New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Literature New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in South Asian Studies New Books Network April 27, 2020 Raj Balkaran

Endless Song (Oxford University Press, 2019) is Dr. Archana Venkatesan’s exquisite translation of the Tiruvaymoli (sacred utterance), a brilliant 1102-verse ninth century tamil poem celebrating the poet Nammalvar’s mystical quest for union with his supreme lord, the Hindu great god Viṣṇu. In this interview we discuss the sophisticated structure and profound content of the Tiruvaymoli, along with the... Read More

Sarah Adleman, “The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes” (Tolsun, 2019)

Sarah Adleman
The Lampblack Blue of Memory
My Mother Echoes
Tolsun Books, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Literature New Books in Poetry New Books Network April 23, 2020 Athena Dixon

The Houston Chronicle’s review of Sarah Adleman’s The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes (Tolsun 2019) praises that the book “dissects the feelings that have been a part of her since her mother’s death with the precision and brutality of a poet and all the awful beauty of a... Read More

Maureen McLane
Great Books: Maureen McLane on Wordsworth's Poetry

Think About It, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in British Studies New Books in Intellectual History New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books Network April 21, 2020 Uli Baer

The British romantic poet William Wordsworth is best known for his moving evocations of nature, his celebration of childhood, and his quest to find a shared humanity in his poetry. He’s also widely considered the first modern poet because he turns his experiences, memories, and the workings of his mind... Read More

Octavia Cade
Mary Shelley Makes a Monster

Aqueduct Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Literature New Books in Poetry New Books Network April 14, 2020 Andrea Blythe

In Octavia Cade’s brilliant collection of poetry Mary Shelley Makes a Monster (Aqueduct Press, 2019), the famous author of Frankenstein crafts a creature out of ink, mirrors, and the remnants of her own heartbreak and sorrow. Abandoned and alone after Shelley’s death, the monster searches for a mother to fill... Read More

Amir Eshel
Great Books: Amir Eshel on Paul Celan's Poetry

Think About It, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Eastern European Studies New Books in German Studies New Books in Jewish Studies New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Religion & Faith New Books Network March 31, 2020 Uli Baer

Paul Celan’s poetry marks the end of European modernism: he is the last poet of the era where the poetic “I” could center a subjective vision of the world through language. Celan bears witness to the Holocaust as the irredeemable rupture in European civilization, but he does so in German,... Read More

Carl W. Ernst, “Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr” (Northwestern UP, 2018)

Carl W. Ernst
Hallaj
Poems of a Sufi Martyr
Northwestern University Press, 2018

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Islamic Studies New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Middle Eastern Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Religion New Books in Religion & Faith March 13, 2020 Kristian Petersen

“I am the Real,” is the ecstatic statement often associated with the early Sufi poet Mansur al-Hallaj. In popular narratives about Hallaj this declaration of absolute unity with God is what led to his execution in Abbasid Baghdad. Other accounts attribute it to Hallaj’s directive to build a symbolic Ka’ba... Read More