A Fine Excess : Contemporary Literature at Play [Paperback]

Kirby Gann (Editor), Kristin Herbert (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1889330515 | ISBN-13: 978-1889330518 | Publication Date: January 1, 2001 | Edition: 1st

A collection of poetry, fiction, and essay where language isn’t strictly functional but comes at the world in its most intense states—in reverie, in revelry, in fine excess; writers who must have, as Paul West once termed it, the world written up. These are minds unavoidably alive on the page. And there they move freely, in particular musical fashion, often making unlikely connections, sometimes jutting their sentences into odd and disproportionate rhythms, creating a vivid, sensory whole.

Marketing plans:

o Advertisements in writer’s magazines

o Large brochure and postcard mailings

A Fine Excess is the second title to be included in Sarabande’s new series, The Writer’s Studio, which features books that challenge, stimulate, and support the writer of poetry and short fiction.

Kirby Gann is the Managing Editor at Sarabande Books. His fiction has appeared in Witness, American Writing, The Crescent Review, and many other journals. He also has a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize. Kristin Herbert is the former Marketing Director of Sarabande Books. She now lives in San Francisco. She has won an Academy of American Poets Prize, grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Contributors include:
Maggie Anderson
E.E. Cummings
Barbara Edelman
Alice Fulton
William Gass
Amy Gerstler
Michael Graber
Sunetra Gupta
Jack Heflin
William Kistler
Yusef Komunyakaa
Jeffrey McDaniel
Sharon McDermott
Kristina McGrath
Susan Mitchell
Rick Moody
E. Stallings
Belle Waring
Edmund White
and many more

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This unusual collection of 36 writings is unlike most anthologies of mixed genres; its common element, claim editors Gann and Herbert--themselves writers--is a sense of "play," by which they do not mean "merely lighthearted, whimsical riffs," but rather works by "writers who show creative delight, who explore the possibilities within the compound sentence, within composed phrases." The editors are not opposed to what Tom Wolfe calls "K-Mart Realism," they are simply on to something else--and although their selections may seem curious, there is much here to enjoy. Pieces by such well-known writers as e.e. cummings, William Gass and Edmund White are included, along with those by newer names such as Valerie Wohlfeld and Connie Voisine. Poetry, short fiction, essays and other writings that defy easy labeling, such as Lynn Emanuel's "Who Is She Kidding," appear without following any pattern. Overall, the short fiction is especially memorable. In "Give the Millionaire a Drink," Mike Newirth, without using the conventions of plot and character, captures the aimlessness and emotional underdevelopment of the very rich partying in East Hampton. Rick Moody demonstrates his eye for plaintive eccentricity and surrealism in "The Mansion on the Hill," about a poor soul working for a wedding banquet hall. And Peter La Salle's "The Latin Ice Kings" is an energetic, free-associative, first-person narrative by a "pasty-faced Anglo" underachiever playing street hockey in Texas with the Mexicans, reflecting on crack, his girlfriend and Martha Stewart. (Jan.)Forecast: This miscellany will appeal only to the literarily adventurous--a small but discrete market.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In response to what writer Tom Wolfe has dubbed "K-Mart realism"--the preponderance of drab, uninspired prose as the prevailing contemporary literary style--the editors of this volume have assembled a collection of poetry and prose authors who have defied that trend. Many contributors to numerous fiction journals and independent presses from around the country wrote the works in this volume and employ a more dynamic and inventive choice of language and structure. Rick Moody and Patrick Chamoiseau are among the up-and-coming writers showcased. Moody's "The Mansion on the Hill," the story of a power-mad wedding planner and her assistant, veils the pathos of coming to terms with the death of a loved one. Chamoiseau's "The Eighteen Dream-Words That Afoukal Gave Him" is a formally eclectic experiment, combining a variety of Western and non-Western literary traditions. The poetry in the collection also expands the boundaries of form and language while retaining some traditional elements to keep them accessible, thus the title "A Fine Excess," borrowed from Keats. A worthy collection and refreshing for those tired of popular conventions. Ted Leventhal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889330515
• ISBN-13: 978-1889330518
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excessively wonderful anthology, March 25, 2002

By 

Victoria Brockmeier "VB" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fine Excess : Contemporary Literature at Play (Paperback)

When I saw the list of contributors in A Fine Excess, I knew immediately that this was something I needed to look into. I found it even better than I had expected. I wasn't confronted with the standard list of politically-correct writers, with their oatmeal-flavored politically-correct poetry, that's been the fare of most contemporary anthologies I've seen. On the contrary, this book shows tremendous editorial integrity and risk to put known-but-not-necessarily-liked authors like e. e. cummings alongside relative unknowns like Jeff McDaniel, without many sure-fire sellers. The few expected names that do pop up are in here on their own aesthetic merit, not because they were/are powerful, or because their work plugs into any particular ideology; the only agenda is to pull together a picture of really inventive, linguistically and intellectually daring work. As a whole, this text really works, too, building an aesthetic that's not only lucid and definite, but actually delightful.

Not only is A Fine Excess a treasure to page through on a chilly afternoon, but I would also wholeheartedly recommend it as a text for a creative writing class--with the one caveat that it should be used in conjunction with discussion of authors like Shakespeare, Donne, Eliot, and so forth. The writers selected for A Fine Excess have a firm grounding in this kind of literary bedrock; the glorious thing is that they show us just how far, and how gracefully, a talented writer can leap into the artistic aether.