_WHY POETRY _(Ecco Press)An impassioned call for a return to reading
POETRY AND AN INCISIVE ARGUMENT FOR POETRY'S ACCESSIBILITY TO ALL
READERS, by critically acclaimed poet MATTHEW ZAPRUDER.
In _Why Poetry_, award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder takes on what it
is that poetry--and poetry alone--can do. Zapruder argues that the way
we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us
from enjoying it. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that
misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and
creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when
faced with it.
ZAPRUDER EXPLORES WHAT POEMS ARE, and how we can read them, so that we
can, as Whitman wrote, -possess the origin of all poems, - without the
aid of any teacher or expert. Most important, he asks how reading
POETRY CAN HELP US TO LEAD OUR LIVES WITH GREATER MEANING AND PURPOSE.
Anchored in poetic analysis and steered through ZAPRUDER'S PERSONAL
EXPERIENCE OF COMING TO THE FORM, _Why Poetry_ is engaging and
conversational, even as it makes a passionate argument for the
necessity of poetry in an age when information is constantly being
mistaken for knowledge. While he provides a simple reading method for
approaching poems and illuminates concepts like associative movement,
metaphor, and negative capability, Zapruder explicitly confronts the
obstacles that readers face when they encounter poetry to show us that
poetry can be read, and enjoyed, by anyone.
Praise for _Why Poetry_
“Part personal essay, part criticism, part literary guidebook.”
—Huffington Post
“[Zapruder] takes a personal approach, mixing memoir, analysis, and
argument. . . . [His] writing is accessible, easygoing, and welcoming,
as if he's sitting right there talking us through the poems.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"A marvelous book. [Zapruder] warms to his subject—the importance of
poetry and what makes it tick. . . . He shows that poetry 'connects
elements that one wouldn’t have expected' to surprise the reader
with an awareness of associations perhaps not quite in the range of
conscious thought. Poetry, unhampered by having to fulfill other
functions, offers a pure interaction with language and thus the
possibility of catching elusive moments of illumination. . . . Ending
with a politically charged afterword, 'Poetry and Poets in a Time of
Crisis,' this passionate book . . . would work well both in a college
classroom and in the hands of ordinary readers." —Publishers Weekly
MATTHEW ZAPRUDER is the author of _Why Poetry_ (Ecco, August 2017) and
four POETRY COLLECTIONS: _Sun Bear; Come On, All You Ghosts; The
Pajamist;_ and _American Linden_. An Associate Professor in the MFA
program at Saint Mary’s College of California, he is also editor at
large at Wave Books and from 2016-2017 was editor of the poetry column
for the New York Times Magazine. He lives in Oakland, CA.
DAVID L. ULIN is the author, most recently, of the novel _Ear to the
Ground._ A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, his other books include
_Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles_, a finalist for the
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the
_Library of America's Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology,_
which won a California Book Award.
Matthew Zapruder photo by B.A. Van Sise
David Ulin photo by Noah Ulin
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13/09/2017 Last update