Museletter Correspondents' Choice: Favorite Books
BOB HOLMAN: BOB'S STATE OF POETRY LEONARDO DELLAROCCA (Miami): LEONARDO'S STATE OF POETRY CRISTIN APTOWICZ (New York): CRISTIN'S STATE OF POETRY TA'SHIA ASANTI (Denver): TA'SHIA'S STATE OF POETRY JASON PETTUS (Chicago): JASON'S STATE OF POETRY GARY GLAZNER (Santa Fe): GARY'S STATE OF POETRY IAN FERRIER (Montreal): IAN'S STATE OF POETRY BOB REDMOND(Seattle): BOB'S STATE OF POETRY MARJ HAHNE (Philadelphia): MARJ'S STATE OF POETRY JENNIFER JOSEPH (San Francisco): JENNIFER'S STATE OF POETRY VICTOR INFANTE (Orange County): VICTOR'S STATE OF POETRY STAZJA MCFADYEN (Austin): STAZJA'S STATE OF POETRY
Right now it’s a tie between Sapphire’s Black Wings & Blind Angels (Knopf, 1999), in which our wildest confrontationist deconstructs villanelles and sestinas, exploiting antique forms for political ends that revitalize them like physical exercise, not workshop exercise; Koon Woon’s The Truth in Rented Rooms (Kaya, 1998), absolutely new voice solidly in the American grain, blinking at the stars gives them truth; and John Rodriguez’s Purple 5 (Idlewild, 2000), fresh young voice from the plains of the Bronx: tough and smart and formal and lovely anger.
BOB'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
The best book of poetry I've read recently -- and consider, all I read is poetry, no novels at all -- is Billy Collins' Picnic, Lightning (1998, Pitt Poetry Series).
LEONARDO'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK PERFORMANCE
M-80, by Jim Daniels (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993): This book found its way to me at a very important time in my youth. By writing about the beauty and tragedy of the working, blue-collar life, one in which I had grown up and saw no beauty or poetry in, he irreversibly changed my concept of myself and my upbringing. A beautiful, beautiful book.
CRISTIN'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
When it comes to books, the latest masterpiece by Sonia Sanchez featuring a sex-sensual collection of her love poems, Like the Singing Coming Off The Drums (Beacon Press, 1999) makes me wanna meditate on this sistah's pen, y'all!
TA'SHIA'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Daphne Gottlieb, Pelt (Odd Girls Press, 1999): Everything small press poetry should be.
JASON'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
In Search of Duende, poems and essays by Federico Garcia Lorca, edited by Christopher Mauer (New Directions, 1998).
GARY'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Best poetry book: This is an impossible question. I could have chosen Hart Crane, W.B. Yeats, Homer, Dylan Thomas, Paul Blackburn, Edward Dorn, Li Po, Baudelaire, Villon, Nelligan, Keats, Coleridge, the list goes on. . . . I chose the one I read most: The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, Wallace Stevens (Alfred A. Knopf, October 1, 1954).
IAN'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Letter To an Imaginary Friend by Thomas McGrath, reprinted by Copper Canyon Press, 1997.
BOB'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Poetry Nation: The North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 1998), edited by Regie Cabico and Todd Swift.
MARJ'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Do I have to answer this? It's a toss-up between Jeffrey McDaniel's two books Alibi School and The Forgiveness Parade (Manic D Press, 1998); Justin Chin's Bite Hard (Manic D Press, 1997); Tarin Towers' Sorry We're Close (Manic D Press, 1999); Sparrow 13 LaughingWand's Hell Soup (Manic D Press, 1996); and about a dozen others I've published.
JENNIFER'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Argh. Let's say T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays (1969, Faber & Faber) and call it at that before I get out of control.
VICTOR'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
I have three. If I had to choose one to take to a desert island, I'd build a bridge instead: 100 Selected Poems, e.e. cummings (Grove Press, first copyright 1923, I have the first Evergreen edition, 1959); One Hundred and One Famous Poems, anthology compiled by Roy J. Cook (Contemporary Books, Inc., 1958); & Unprotected Poetry, Larry Jaffe (Poet Warrior Press, 1997).
STAZJA'S CHOICE WEB SITE BOOK CD PERFORMANCE
Museletter Correspondents' State of Poetry
Choice WEB SITES BOOKS CDs PERFORMANCES
