Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry
An indispensable volume of poems, selected from almost four decades of
work, that tracks the evolution of one of our most renowned contemporary
poets, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jorie Graham.
The Poetry Foundation has named Jorie Graham "one of the most celebrated
poets of the American post-war generation." In 1996, her volume of
poetry selected from her first five books, Dream of a Unified Field,
won the Pulitzer Prize. Now, twenty years later, Graham returns with a
new selection, this time from eleven volumes, including previously
unpublished work, which, in its breathtaking overview, illuminates of
the development of her remarkable poetry thus far.
In From the New World--Poems 1976-2014, we can witness the unfolding
of Graham's signature ethical and eco-political concerns, as well as her
deft exploration of mythology, history, love and, increasingly, love of
the world in a time of crisis. As the work evolves, the depth of
compassion grows--gradually transforming, widening and expanding her
extraordinary formal resources and her inimitable style.
These pages present a brilliant portrait one of the major voices of
American contemporary poetry. As critic Calvin Bedient says, "If Graham
has proved oversized as a poet in the field of contemporary poetry, it
is because she continually recalls the great Western tradition of
philosophical and religious inquiry . . . tenaciously thinking and
feeling her way through layer after layer of perception, like no poet
before her."
