The Open Light

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"The new anthology is a follow-up to one published in 1990. . . both books feature poems by writers who either taught at or attended the university. Both volumes aim to display the role that poetry plays at Notre Dame. . . . Menes says that diversity of voices can be seen in the growth of female poets with works featured in The Open Light. The increased diversity reflects the growth in creative writing programs at Notre Dame and other colleges across the nation." -South Bend Tribune

"The anthology celebrates the work of 24 poets associated with the University then, including graduates Beth Ann Fennelly '93, Francisco Aragon '03 MFA and Anthony Walton '82, and faculty members Jacque Vaught Brogan, Seamus Deane and John Wilkinson. A follow up to The Space Between: Poets from Notre Dame, 1950-1990, this updated collection takes its name from a poem by former ND English professor Cornelius Eady." -Notre Dame Magazine

"The poems in The Open Light are not only good. Beyond the fine work of these many excellent poets, what strikes me is the tremendous diversity of voices and sensibilities represented here. Where else could I find the intricate sonic complexity of the work of Robert Archambeau or Michael Coffey set against the wild, energetic playfulness of Jenny Boully's experimental forms? What other anthology might include Bei Dao's lovely, crystalline meditations set against Stacy Cartledge's or Anthony Walton's plainspoken, deceptively complex narratives? These poems cover more aesthetic territory than any ten anthologies and are a ringing testimony to the talent and the catholicity of tastes at work at the University of Notre Dame." -Kevin Prufer, The University of Houston

"The principal pleasures of this collection-and rightly so-lie in the richness and diversity of the poems it contains. Varied in style, form, voice, and subject matter, traditional, experimental, centered in the ethnic self, sharply placed in concrete landscapes, or deliberately abstract, they represent the reach, not just of Notre Dame poetry, but of much of recent poetry in America. The Notre Dame connections among these poets invite another kind of tantalizing, speculative reading. There are real commonalities here, a sense throughout that poetry has consequence and gravity in the world and that style is a kind of commitment. Other threads can be followed in autobiographical sketches Orlando Menes has included in the "Statements" section in the Appendix, but whether reading for poetry's sake or Notre Dame's Open Light is a treasure." -Michael Anania, University of Illinois at Chicago