Poetry 365 Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Evanston Public Library

Poetry 365

June 26, 2014

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Vijay Seshadri’s remarkable new book 3 Sections. Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, this third collection from the regular New Yorker essayist and book critic employs a wide array of poetic forms to examine modern consumer culture, age-old angst, and Seshardri’s South Asian Heritage. Favorably compared to the work of Robert Frost by way of John Ashbery, these expertly-crafted poems show why Time Out New York named Seshadri “one of the most respected poets working in America today.” So don’t miss this terrific new book, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

March 29, 2014

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting the impressive eleventh book from innovative poet August Kleinzahler. In The Hotel Oneira, the National Book Critics Circle Award winner adopts a mysterious Rod Serling-like persona as he visits his native North Jersey, the snowy battlefields of 19th-century Russia, an American ghost town, and a foggy San Francisco. Amusing and challenging, the dark lyrics and mini-narratives in this 27 poem collection “open doors to surreal, vividly rendered destinations that seem as real as any found in a travel agent’s brochure.” So check out this bold new volume, sample a poem below, and clear your calendar… our National Poetry Month celebration is about to begin.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

February 28, 2014

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Alex Lemon’s stellar new volume The Wish Book. Tightly coiled, kaleidoscopic, and full of heart, this fourth collection from the author of Happy blends “the energy of a carnival barker with the precise prosody of a master craftsman.” Favorably compared to the work of Lucia Perillo and Laura Kasischke, these 43 dazzling poems have been praised by Bob Hicok for “showing us what we have and how briefly we have it.” So don’t miss this terrific new book, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

December 28, 2013

: Poet Diane Raptosh

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting Diane Raptosh’s remarkable new volume American Amnesiac. Longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award, this fourth collection from the Boise Poet Laureate follows “the manic journey of a man stripped of memory” and forced to “confront the complexities of being American in an age of corruption, corporations, and global conflict.” Mixing confession and prophesy, history and myth, these 65 haunting poems cast a linguistic spell that “compels and rewards slow reading.” So check out this riveting new book, enjoying the opening poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

November 23, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Jaswinder Bolina’s accomplished new volume Phantom Camera. Winner of the 2012 Green Rose Prize, the Lesley University professor’s second collection nimbly navigates readers through the chaos of contemporary life in 37 poems PW called “sophisticated but eminently embraceable, a tip-off of what’s to come.” So check out this fresh new voice, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

August 29, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting the fantastic fifth book from celebrated poet Maurice Manning. In The Gone and the Going Away, the Pulitzer Prize finalist mines his own rural Kentucky roots while creating the folks of Fog Town Holler – a mythical, bygone land that “celebrates and echoes the voices and lives of his beloved hill people.” Southern, earthy, and uniquely timeless, this 52 poem collection leaves little wonder why W.S. Merwin proclaimed Manning a “fresh and brilliant talent.” So check out this vivid new volume, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

June 14, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring the profound eighth book from influential poet Frank Bidart. In Metaphysical Dog, the Wallace Stevens Award winner focuses his “spiky free verse” on poignant explorations of “the war between the mind and body, ecstasy and obliteration, his mother’s death, and his coming out.” Unconventional, emotional, and intellectually rewarding, this 39 poem collection shows why Louise Gluck named Bidart “one of the great poems of our time.” So check out this bold new volume, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

May 23, 2013

Another National Poetry Month has come and gone but that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Breathe easy, poetry friends, because here on Off the Shelf we like to celebrate year round with Poetry 365, a monthly-minus-April feature that highlights a contemporary poet’s most recent work. This month we pick back up with Bob Hicok’s absorbing new book Elegy Owed. A fluid, funny, and darkly irreverent exploration of mortality and mourning, this eighth collection from the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist offers offbeat variations on the elegy that “jut out in wild, associative directions, yet find their way back to the root of the matter, often in sincere and heartbreaking ways.” So while you reminisce about another National Poetry Month, check out this excellent new collection, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

March 22, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting Jessica Greenbaum’s eloquent new volume The Two Yvonnes. Chosen for Paul Muldoon’s series of Princeton Contemporary Poets, the upstreet editor’s second collection employs prose-like free verse, sonnets, and a single pantoun in explorations of the urban everyday akin to Elizabeth Bishop and W.G. Sebald. Organic and unhurried, these 42 poems showcase what PW called Greenbaum’s “great intelligence, skill with abstraction, humor, and talent for endings” while raising her writing “far above the mundane.” So check out this excellent new collection, sample a poem below, and clear your calendar… our National Poetry Month celebration is about to begin.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Poetry 365

February 28, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Marcus Wicker’s stellar new book Maybe the Saddest Thing. Winner of the 2011 National Poetry Series Prize as selected by D.A. Powell, Wicker’s outstanding debut mixes meditations on memory, family, race, and desire with complicated love letters to African-American icons such as Pam Grier, Flavor Flav, and Dave Chappelle. Fearless, vibrant, and hip, these 38, excitingly varied poems have been favorably compared to the work of Terrance Hayes who praised the collection for “showing us what it is to be in vigilant conversation with the world and with the self.” So check out this wonderful new book, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

Continue reading “Poetry 365” →