From Library Journal
Award-winning poet Thiel (Univ. of Miami; Echolocations) here documents her favorite teaching methods, focusing on topics like nature, form, storytelling, and myth making. Thiel takes passages from many well-known works and some from classes she has taught as samples of what doesn't work and what does and, more importantly, why. The last section, "Myth-Making," crosses over into writing narrative, as Thiel notes that even poetry is storytelling. She doles out ideas generously, and some of them seem more likely to strike sparks "tell an outrageous lie" than others "describe the color blue." The focus may be on writing poetry, but she calls on narrative, journalism, and simply wandering the library as sources for inspiration and for structure. A useful text for poets and would-be poets alike, this is appropriate for advanced high school or undergraduate poetry courses. Robert Moore, Parexel International, Waltham, MA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Diane Thiel won the 2000 Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize for her first book. She has also received the Robert Frost Prize, the Robinson Jeffers/Tor House Prize, and has been a Fulbright Scholar (2002). She teaches at the University of New Mexico.