The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry [Hardcover]

Michael Collier (Editor), Stanley Plumly (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999 | Series: Bread Loaf Anthology

A galaxy of writers epitomizes the state of American poetry at the century's close.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The self-proclaimed descendants of Lowell, Plath and Berryman (and, further back, Frost) meet yearly for a Vermont series of workshops and readings from which this anthology takes its name. Initially, one could say that its mostly confessionally based metric has simply devolved: the narcissism is still there, with most of these poems lingering over anxieties, "deep sensibilities," distrust of the world, adultery, pleasant afternoons and vacations, etc. But the formal mastery of the Lowell generationAwith its ties to Eliot's modernism, Auden's precosity, Williams's directness and his original prosodyAare gone. While most of this work is not confessional in the strict sense, it is disheartening how few of the poems here rise above the basic frame of the exhausted, inescapable self in the world, or how, when a different theme is adopted, it is still tied to basic formal tricksAthe piling up of redundant detail as a baroque display of knowledge is one of themAwhich renders the work repetitive and mundane. One hundred poets were invited to select from their own work; eighty-two came forward, including: Marvin Bell, Stephen Berg, Frank Bidart, Lucille Clifton, editors Michael Collier and Stanley Plumly, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, Tess Gallagher, Louise Gl?ck, Linda Gregerson, Marilyn Hacker, Michael S. Harper, Brenda Hillman, Mark Jarman, Galway Kinnell, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, the late William Matthews, W.S. Merwin, Robert Pinsky, Alberto Rios, David St. John, Gerald Stern, Mark Strand, James Tate, C.K. Williams and C.D. Wright. These are big names, and they deliver some virtuoso performances. (Many are also found the Best American, reviewed above.) But while there is some incontestably brilliant work hereAGl?ck, Gregerson, Strand, Matthews and Komunyaaka stand outAthe book reflects less of a "commitment to the future of the nation's poetry," as the editors profess, than a veneration for its glorious past. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this ample work, successor to the notable Bread Loaf Anthology of 1985, 82 poets select their own work, and the range of voices and styles included is immense: from Agha Shahid Ali, Frank Bidart, and Yusef Komunyakaa to Campbell McGrath, Heather McHugh, Alberto Rios, and more. What is most striking, perhaps, about this collection is that once again, as so often in literature, salvation has come from the margins: whenever there seems to be a danger of complacent monochromy, remarkable poets come forward with newly eloquent messages from their experience of difference in class, color, race, language, or sexuality. Collier and Plumly, both professors at the University of Maryland, have assembled what is perhaps the best single volume of contemporary poetry now availableAa superb introduction for the new reader and a splendid handbook for the poet and critic. For most collections.AGraham Christian, Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 381 pages
• Publisher: Bread Loaf Writers' Conference/Middlebury (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874519497
• ISBN-13: 978-0874519495
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,099,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)