Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry

Essays and critical writings on contemporary poetry by Stephen Burt, "the finest critic of his generation" (Lucie Brock-Broido)

Stephen Burt's Close Calls with Nonsense provokes readers into the elliptical worlds of Rae Armantrout, Paul Muldoon, C. D. Wright, and other contemporary poets whose complexities make them challenging, original, and, finally, readable. Burt's intelligence and enthusiasm introduce both tentative and longtime poetry readers to the rewards of reading new poetry. As Burt writes in the title essay: "The poets I know don't want to be famous people half so much as they want their best poems read; I want to help you find and read them. I write here for people who want to read more new poetry but somehow never get around to it; for people who enjoy Seamus Heaney or Elizabeth Bishop and want to know what next; for people who enjoy John Ashbery or Anne Carson but aren't sure why; and, especially, for people who read the half-column poems in glossy magazines and ask, 'Is that all there is?'"

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 03/31/2009
ISBN: 9781555975210
Pages: 360
Weight: 1.31lbs
Size: 9.04h x 5.98w x 1.13d
Award: National Book Critics Circle Award - Finalist

Review Citations: Entertainment Weekly 04/24/2009 pg. 109
Publishers Weekly 04/20/2009 pg. 32
Library Journal 07/15/2009 pg. 98