Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review [Paperback]

James Smith (Editor), Billy Collins (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2009

This substantial anthology charts the development of this influential journal decade by decade, making clear that although it has close ties to a particular

region, it has consistently maintained a national scope, publishing poets from all over the United States. SPR’s goal has been to celebrate the poem above all, so although there are poems by major poets here, there are many gems by less famous, perhaps even obscure, writers too. Here are 183 poems by nearly as many poets, from A. R. Ammons, Kathryn Stripling Byer, James Dickey, Mark Doty, Claudia Emerson, David Ignatow, and Carolyn Kizer to Ted Kooser, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, Howard Nemerov, Sharon Olds, Linda Pastan, and Charles Wright.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This superb selection from an enduring, flagship journal holds work by many of our most indispensable poets and, remarkably often, what went on to become their signature poems. This anthology reminds us of those

poems’ first public life: in the pages of a ‘small’ magazine with, as it turns out, a freighter-sized wake. The prose introductions to each section are

lucid microcosms, outlining each decade’s shifting cultural concerns. If some imagined Alexandrian Library of American Poetry were to burn, this anthology could, on its own, convey an important part of our literary seed-stock.”

—Jane Hirshfield, author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry and After: Poems

“No reader will leave this harvest table hungry—here is nourishment for all. Eleanor Ross Taylor’s title poem invites us to a playful sacrament: eat the ‘bright flesh’ of birdsong, drink the ‘momentary blood’ of a wave, and ‘All thy sins are teggen away, teggen away.’ Fifty years of the best American

poetry is spread out before us, grouped by decade with James Smith’s

extraordinarily helpful essays giving us a quick context for each, from the ‘Me Decade’ of the seventies to the ‘Greed Decade’ of the eighties and our current ‘Security Decade.’ These poems epitomize their eras yet move

beyond, rise beyond as poetry always does, capturing time and place and lived life in a way no other art can manage. . . . This fine collection offers us fare for the journey.”

—Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill

About the Author

James Smith is associate professor of English at Armstrong Atlantic State University and associate editor of Southern Poetry Review.

Billy Collins was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. His first book was The Apple That Astonished Paris (University of Arkansas Press), and his most recent collection is Ballistics: Poems.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557288933
• ISBN-13: 978-1557288936
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,048,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Celebration of Fifty Years of Poetry, May 14, 2009

By 

C. O. Aptowicz (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review (Paperback)

It boggles my mind that a poetry journal could even last fifty years, let alone last fifty years and still remain relevant and muscular, able to celebrate poetic voices old and new.

The Southern Poetry Review has earned this beautiful book, which showcases a wide scope of voices. As the Southern Poetry Review published a variety of poets, there is a variety of tones, styles and subjects matters. Sometimes this works well, but other times I wished there was a little more cohesiveness.

The book was organized in chronological order -- which makes utter sense, of course! -- but sometimes I wished it was organized by theme, allowing new and old poems on similar themes to compliment each other, and allowing the anthology to showcase those thematic "through lines" which make a poem "Southern Poetry Review"-worthy, not matter in which decade it was written.

Still, it is the Southern Poetry Review deserves a ton of praise for its amazing work in the service of poetry, and this thick collection is filled with some wonderful verse!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enhanced with an informed and informative foreword by Billy Collins (U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003), August 15, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review (Paperback)

The 'Southern Poetry Review' is an iconic poetry journal with a long history of introducing distinguished poets to its readers, many of whom went on to literary honors and success. Now the very best of these poets published in its pages over the past half-century are represented in "Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review" has been selected, compiled, and edited by James Smith (Associate Professor of English, Armstrong Atlantic State University). Enhanced with an informed and informative foreword by Billy Collins (U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003), the "Don't Leave Hungry" anthology is organized chronologically by decade, and includes a contributors list, and author index, a title index, and appendices listing the winner's of the Gary Owen Prize. ""Don't Leave Hungry" is a seminal and strongly recommended contribution to personal, community, and academic library American Poetry collections.