“This highly useful resource combines great selections of poetry by eleven female innovators, whose work opens up new streams of thought on history, society, language and authority, with brilliant essays about them.”
–Elizabeth Gregory, author of “Apparition of Splendor”: Marianne Moore Performing Democracy through Celebrity, 1952-1970
North American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Beyond Lyric and Language is an important new addition to the American Poets in the 21st Century series. Like earlier anthologies, this volume includes generous selections of poetry by some of the best poets of our time as well as illuminating poetics statements and incisive essays on their work. This unique organization makes these books invaluable teaching tools. Broadening the lens through which we look at contemporary poetry, this new volume extends our reading of each poet beyond the constraints of any one aesthetic, school, or movement; this volume pushes readers to see beyond the binary of lyric and language. What unites the varied approaches of these writers is a commitment to creating new fields, new idioms, new vernaculars, and new forms. Key areas of conflict and concern, among the eleven poets, include genre and the nature of the lyric, connections between gender and aesthetics, and the nature of poetic language.
Among the insightful pieces included in this volume are essays by Catherine Cucinella on Marilyn Chin, Meg Tyler on Fanny Howe, Elline Lipkin on Alice Notley, Kamran Javadizadeh on Claudia Rankine, Brian Teare on Martha Ronk, Michael Cross on Leslie Scalapino, Lynn Keller on Cole Swensen, Khadijah Queen on Natasha Trethewey, Lisa Russ Spaar on Jean Valentine, Julie Brown on Cecilia Vicuña, and Richard Greenfield on Rosmarie Waldrop.
From the book:
LISA SEWELL is a poet, editor, and professor. She was born and raised in Hollywood in Southern California. She received a BA from UC Berkeley, a MFA from NYU, and a PhD from Tufts University. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Her poems employ the confessional mode to examine the underbelly of human connection and existence. Sewell’s poetry collections include The Way Out, Name Withheld, and Impossible Object. She also co-edited the last volume of the American Poets in the 21st Century series titled Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics Across North America.
KAZIM ALI is a poet, editor, prose writer, and professor. He was born in the UK to Muslim parents of Indian, Iranian, and Egyptian descent. Ali was raised in the United States and Canada before going on to receive a BA and MA from the University of Albany-SUNY, and an MFA from New York University. He is currently a professor of literature and writing at the University of California, San Diego. Ali’s poetry collections include The Far Mosque, which won Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award, The Fortieth Day, Sky Ward, and Inquisition. His work explores the intersection of faith and daily life.
