Together in a Sudden Strangeness
America's Poets Respond to the Pandemic
Published on 9. June 2020
208 pages
978-0-593-31871-3 (ISBN)
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.
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.
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.
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03/2023
Alfred A. Knopf
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11/2020
Alfred A. Knopf
€25.50
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Person
ALICE QUINN, the executive director of the Poetry Society of America for eighteen years, was also the poetry editor at The New Yorker from 1987 to 2007 and an editor at Alfred A. Knopf for more than ten years prior to that. She teaches at Columbia University's School of the Arts and is the editor of a book of Elizabeth Bishop's writings, Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments, as well as a forthcoming book of Bishop's journals. She lives in New York City and Millerton, New York
Content
CONTRIBUTING POETS:
Julia Alvarez Sarah Arvio Jesse Ball Rick Barot Ellen Bass Erin Belieu Joshua Bennett Jill Bialosky Sophie Cabot Black Traci Brimhall Stephanie Burt Ama Codjoe Catherine Cohen Elizabeth Coleman Billy Collins Nicole Cooley Peter Cooley Timothy Donnelly Cornelius Eady John Freeman Forrest Gander Suzanne Gardinier Deborah Garrison Tammy Melody Gomez Rigoberto Gonzalez George Green Linda Gregerson Eliza Griswold Julia Guez Nathalie Handal Brooks Haxton Aleksandar Hemon Edward Hirsch Jane Hirshfield Richie Hofmann Garrett Hongo Fanny Howe Didi Jackson Major Jackson Fady Joudah Stephen Kampa Vincent Katz Susan Kinsolving Ron Koertge John Koethe Yusef Komunyakaa Li-Young Lee Dana Levin Ada Limón Dave Lucas Amit Majmudar Gail Mazur Shane McCrae Maureen McLane Dante Michaux Susan Minot Susan Mitchell Kamilah Aisha Moon Jim Moore Tomás Q. Morin Laura Mullen Carol Muske-Dukes Eileen Myles D. Nurkse John Okrent Kitty O'Meara Ron Padgett Sarah Paley Carl Phillips Patrick Phillips Rowan Ricardo Phillips Katha Pollitt Dean Rader ClareRossini Mary Jo Salter Grace Schulman Vijay Seshadri Diane Seuss Evie Shockley Elizabeth Spires Tess Taylor Anne Waldman Rex Wilder Jenny Xie Matthew Zapruder
AND to be added to the hardcover and upated eBook and audiobook -- available to all who've already purchased -- in November 2020:
April Bernard David Biespiel George Bilgere Jericho Brown Danielle Chapman
Nicholas Christopher Rachel Eliza Griffiths Brenda Hillman Brad Leithauser
Sally Wen Mao Sharon Olds Tommy Orange Jay Parini Claudia Rankine
Brenda Shaughnessy Susan Stewart Noah Warren Rosanna Warren
Christian Wiman Mark Wunderlich Jeffrey Yang Kevin Young
Julia Alvarez Sarah Arvio Jesse Ball Rick Barot Ellen Bass Erin Belieu Joshua Bennett Jill Bialosky Sophie Cabot Black Traci Brimhall Stephanie Burt Ama Codjoe Catherine Cohen Elizabeth Coleman Billy Collins Nicole Cooley Peter Cooley Timothy Donnelly Cornelius Eady John Freeman Forrest Gander Suzanne Gardinier Deborah Garrison Tammy Melody Gomez Rigoberto Gonzalez George Green Linda Gregerson Eliza Griswold Julia Guez Nathalie Handal Brooks Haxton Aleksandar Hemon Edward Hirsch Jane Hirshfield Richie Hofmann Garrett Hongo Fanny Howe Didi Jackson Major Jackson Fady Joudah Stephen Kampa Vincent Katz Susan Kinsolving Ron Koertge John Koethe Yusef Komunyakaa Li-Young Lee Dana Levin Ada Limón Dave Lucas Amit Majmudar Gail Mazur Shane McCrae Maureen McLane Dante Michaux Susan Minot Susan Mitchell Kamilah Aisha Moon Jim Moore Tomás Q. Morin Laura Mullen Carol Muske-Dukes Eileen Myles D. Nurkse John Okrent Kitty O'Meara Ron Padgett Sarah Paley Carl Phillips Patrick Phillips Rowan Ricardo Phillips Katha Pollitt Dean Rader ClareRossini Mary Jo Salter Grace Schulman Vijay Seshadri Diane Seuss Evie Shockley Elizabeth Spires Tess Taylor Anne Waldman Rex Wilder Jenny Xie Matthew Zapruder
AND to be added to the hardcover and upated eBook and audiobook -- available to all who've already purchased -- in November 2020:
April Bernard David Biespiel George Bilgere Jericho Brown Danielle Chapman
Nicholas Christopher Rachel Eliza Griffiths Brenda Hillman Brad Leithauser
Sally Wen Mao Sharon Olds Tommy Orange Jay Parini Claudia Rankine
Brenda Shaughnessy Susan Stewart Noah Warren Rosanna Warren
Christian Wiman Mark Wunderlich Jeffrey Yang Kevin Young
