Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Story Line Press (synonymous with the resurgence of narrative in poetry) is proud to publish this definitive anthology.
Beginning with Robert Penn Warren's Audubon: A Vision, and Elizabeth Bishop's The Riverman, Story Hour features outstanding poems by 67 contemporary poets.
Twenty-five years ago, it was almost impossible to find in literary magazines and book collections poems that told stories. Most poems were short lyrics or confessional meditations that ran no more than a page or two. Since then, the return of storytelling opened up more possibilities for a new generation of poetry. New readers were attracted to poems that transcended the Self and offered memorable stories. The poems span more than 50 years and include the poets who have written significant narrative, restoring it to a central position in the canon.
Contributors include:
Robert Penn Warren, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wilbur, Frederick Morgan, James Dickey, Anthony Hecht, Louis Simpson, Edward Field, Donald Justice, Maxine Kumin, James Merrill, W.S. Merwin, Donald Hall, X.J. Kennedy, Anne Sexton, Etheridge Knight, George Keithley, Nancy Willard, Dick Allen, Frank Bidart, Jared Carter, Ted Kooser, Frederick Feirstein, Tom Disch, Robert Pinsky, Stephen Dobyns, Sydney Lea, Frederick Turner, David Lee, Thomas James, Marilyn Nelson, Ai, Robert Shaw, Yusef Komunyakaa, R.S. Gwynn, Rachel Hadas, David Lehman, Lynn Emanuel, Dana Gioia, Rodney Jones, Chase Twichell, Nicholas Christopher, Andrew Hudgins, Paul Lake, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Rita Dove, Mark Jarman, Kate Daniels, Robert McDowell, Gjertrud Schnackenberg, David Wojahn, Kim Addonizio, David Mason, Mary Jo Salter, Mary Swander, Russell Edson, Beth Joselow, Lawson Inada, George Hitchcock, Philip Levine, Garrett Hongo, Ginger Andrews, B.H. Fairchild, Liam Rector, Robert Wrigley, John Gery and Clemens Starck.
Sonny Williams lives and teaches in New Orleans.
