Together In A Sudden Strangeness America's Poets Respond To The Pandemic

Description: In this urgent outpouring of American voices our poets speak to us as they shelter in place addressing our collective fear grief and hope from eloquent and diverse individual perspectives. One of the best books of poetry of the year Quinn has accomplished something dizzying here: arranged a stellar cast of poets It is what all anthologies must be: comprehensive contradictory stirring. The Millions** Featuring 107 poets from A to Z Julia Alvarez to Matthew Zapruder with work in between by Jericho Brown Billy Collins Fanny Howe Ada Lim n Sharon Olds Tommy Orange Claudia Rankine Vijay Seshadri and Jeffrey Yang** As the novel coronavirus and its devastating effects began to spread in the United States and around the world Alice Quinn reached out to poets across the country to see if and what they were writing under quarantine. Moved and galvanized by the response the onetime New Yorker poetry editor and recent former director of the Poetry Society of America began collecting the poems arriving in her inbox assembling this various intimate and intricate portrait of our suddenly altered reality. In these pages we find poets grieving for relatives they are separated from or recovering from illness themselves attending to suddenly complicated household tasks or turning to literature for strength considering the bravery of medical workers or working their own shifts at the hospital and as the Black Lives Matter movement has swept the globe reflecting on the inequities in our society that amplify sorrow and demand our engagement. From fierce and resilient to wistful darkly humorous and emblematically reverent about the earth and the vulnerability of human beings in frightening times the poems in this collection find the words to describe what can feel unspeakably difficult and strange providing wisdom companionship and depths of feeling that enliven our spirits. A portion of the advance for this book was generously donated by Alice Quinn and the poets to Chefs for America an organization helping feed communities in need across the country during the pandemic.
Title: Together In A Sudden Strangeness America's Poets Respond To The Pandemic
Barcode: 9780593318720
Publication Date: 11/17/2020