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Editors Select tory selection of James Whitcomb Riley, there is work by the likes of Göran Printz-Påhlson, Letters of Philip Appleman, Willis Barnstone, Blood and Other Works in English, Jean Garrigue, Etheridge Knight, Ed. Robert Archambeau. Open Yusef Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Book Publishers, 2011. This remark- Donald Platt, Kenneth Rexroth, able collection, ably edited and Maura Stanton, Ruth Stone, David introduced by Robert Archambeau, Wagoner, David Wojahn, and collects the considerable English- Kevin Young. About fifteen of the language output of the late Swedish poets have some association either poet-critic Göran Printz-Påhlson for with Notre Dame or Notre Dame the first time. In addition to a gener- Review—from Ernest Sandeen to ous selection of Printz-Påhlson’s Joyelle McSweeney. It’s true that remarkable, adventurous poetry, the some of the poets were only born in book features essays on a surprising Indiana—Rexroth, for example— range of topics, from Strindberg and and then moved on; and that others Kierkegaard to Ashbery and John have only passed through the state Matthias. The centerpiece of the for a year or so before establishing collection is a series of essays called careers elsewhere. But the editors are “The Words of the Tribe: Primitiv- right to claim them anyway. Why ism, Reductionism, and Materialism not? in Modern Poetics,” originally deliv- ered as the Ward-Phillips lectures at Peggy O’Brien, Ed., The Wake Notre Dame in 1984. Restored from Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry, partially corrupted manuscripts by Wake Forest University Press, 2011. Archambeau with the aid of a host Anyone seriously interested in Irish of Swedish and American scholars, poetry will need to have the second these essays, with their reflections edition of this anthology. Follow- on the nature and meaning of poetic ing two separate and wide-ranging language, are as fresh as ever. prefaces by the editor—one to the first edition published fifteen years Jenny Kander and C.E. Greer, ago, the second bringing things up Eds., And Know This Place: Poetry to date—it includes almost book of Indiana, IHS Press, 2011. This length selections of work by sixteen title probably won’t sound excit- poets (the first edition contained ing in New York, London, or Paris, only nine): Eilean Ni Chuil- but it should. Somewhat to one’s leanain, Evan Boland, Eva Bourke, surprise, Indiana has produced Kerry Hardie, Medbh McGuck- a large number of fine poets. ian, Nuala ni Domhnaill (in both Once you get beyond the obliga- Irish and English translation),

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Mary O’Malley, , to fight that battle. He is even able , Moya Cannon, Katie to dislike everyone’s favorite Wil- Donovan, Vona Groarke, Enda liams poem, “Asphodel that Greeny Wyley, Sinead Morrissey, Caitriona Flower,” while making a strong case O’Reilly, and Leontia Flynn. Most for earlier poems, which he prefers. anthologies include only a small He also very much admires some of sample of work by the poets selected Williams’ prose, especially In The to appear in them. This is a true and American Grain. Though there are important exception. One comes occasional errors of fact and for- away from the work of poets rep- matting (especially where it comes resented in this volume with much to printing the late three-ply line more than the usual superficial sense accurately), Williams emerges as a of a writer’s achievement provided man and poet of great interest and in anthologies of half this length. complexity. And, of course, very This book—all 657 pages of it—is much “in the American grain.” a feast. Lea Graham, Hough & Helix & Herbert Leibowitz, “Something Where & Here & You, You, You, Urgent I Have to Say to You”: The No Tell Books, 2011. All of these Life and Works of William Carlos poems—including some that have Williams, FSG, 2011. NDR pub- appeared in NDR—have the word lished the final chapter, “The Lion in “crush” in their texts or titles, and Winter,” of Leibowitz’s new biogra- from this book onward “crush” is a phy of William Carlos Williams in a word that Lea Graham has a kind previous issue. The book will inevi- of patent on. Graham, in fact, has tably be compared to Paul Mariani’s a passionate crush on life, and we 900-page biography published some all know that even the most adoles- thirty years ago. Leibowitz’s ver- cent of crushes can suddenly turn sion of Williams is, while admiring, to real love. Because of that, we as not bedazzled and hagiographical readers have a crush on Graham the way Mariani’s sometimes is. It and her work, which is vivid and is also less anecdotal, being more lively and smart. Beneath all the fun a biography of Williams’ poetry in this writing, there’s insight and than an account of every moment depth and even sadness. Michael in his busy life as a poet, doctor, Anania writes that in this book we family man, and lover. Mariani’s understand that “cursh” has at least book helped win final acceptance a double sense—of uncontrollable of Williams as a major poet, the infatuation and desire of destructive- equal of Elliot, Pound, Moore, and ness. The double and redoubling Stevens. Leibowitz no longer has forces are, for Graham, essential to

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perception and affection, grace and movement of two. They are among need, voiced at times by the poetry the best poets in the USA at the of the past but as often by the pass- moment, and there are very inter- ing tatters of popular music and the esting dialogues going on between movies.” Miller’s three books and Prufer’s trilogy, Fallen from a Chariot, The Jay Rogoff, The Art of Gravity, LSU Beautiful Country, and National Press, 2011. The Art of Gravity is Anthem. Miller’s three epigraphs a perfect title for a book about come from W.H. Auden, Octavio ballet that concludes with a son- Paz, and Italo Calvino—three great net sequence of Danses Macabres. poets of the city. And behind them, Dedicated to George Balanchine, we suppose, stands Eliot’s London of Edgar Degas, and Suzanne Farrell, The Waste Land. The City, Our City it sports on its over a magnificent is through-composed, coherent in photograph of Maria Kowroski in the unity of its parts, and terribly Serenade. The first half of the book, moving. Publishers Weekly has called which includes “Making a Fool of the book a portrait of “a post 9/11, Myself over Maria Kowroski”—and post-imperial, unjust city, one that from the photograph you can see tries to get past persistent fears, to how one might—is written in a find a space for private life while mix of scatter-shot free verse, blank ‘sirens choke back their warnings,’ verse, tight quatrains, sapphics, and and silence ‘curls inside the shell terza rima. The sonnet sequence, that refused to explode.” some of which appeared in NDR, is variously grotesque, funny, and Neil Shepard, (T)ravel Un(t) harrowing. Taken together, the two ravel. Mid-List Press, 2011. NDR parts of this diptych make for a very contributor Neil Shepard writes strong book with an unusual focus. in his fourth volume of poems a With regard to the poems specifical- book-length rebuke to the remark ly about ballet, one should note that by Kingsley Amis made famous in Rogoff is an expert on the subject, Charles Tomlinson’s poem “More having written on dance for Hopkins Foreign Cities”: i.e., “Nobody wants Review and Ballet Review for some any more poems about foreign cit- time. ies.” As in Tomlinson’s work, there are plenty of foreign cities in Shepa- Wayne Miller, The City, Our City, rd’s book. Plenty of foreign rural Milkweed, 2011. Now and then settings as well. NDR has published it seems that Wayne Miller and “Siena,” “Benedictine Monastery at his long-time co-editor at Pleiades, Mount Oliveto,” and “The Ancient Kevin Prufer, constitute a literary Walls of San Gusme,” which defines

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a kind of range. As the book John Peck, Contradance, University (t)ravels and un(t)ravels, five central of Chicago, 2011. We will publish poems, each identified by the title a full-scale review of NDR regular of the book itself, establish rules contributor John Peck’s book in our of the game with epigraphs from, next issue. For now, it is enough to and dedicatory poems written to, announce its publication and quote William Carlos Williams, Robinson Mark Scroggins’ comments on the Jeffers, Wallace Stevens, Edgar Allan jacket: “John Peck is unique among Poe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson— contemporary American poets for American poets who mainly stayed the burnished, intricate density of at home. The opening page of the his thought and the rugged, even book quotes Dana Gioia: “In some gnarled lyricism of his lines. The ways, modern American literary his- ghosts of Ludwig Wittgenstein, tory can be seen as an unresolvable Richard Avedon, Rainer Maria dialectic between regionalism and Rilke, Herman Melville, and a host internationalism, as two competing of others stalk gravely through the identities for the writer.” Shepard’s steps of Peck’s Contradance, their own internationalism is very often spectral presences a ghostly coun- regional, his regionalism interna- terpoint to the poet’s preternatural tional. awareness of the buzzy, blooming confusion of the present moment.” , A Hundred Doors, Wake Forest, 2011. A few issues Marylee Daniel Mitcham, Black- back NDR published Lars-Hakan time Song by Rosalie Wolfe, Eloquent Svensson’s long review of Longley’s Books, 2010. An utterly original Collected Poems. The poet has not novel focused on the possibility of stopped writing, and A Hundred spiritual healing, Blacktime Song Doors is a gorgeous book. The po- by Rosalie Wolfe is also a medita- ems are mostly short, some recalling tion on the potential impossibility the Greek lyric epigram. The music of narrative truth. Mitcham is an throughout is beautifully controlled elegant and compelling stylist: her in what one might call a lush auster- wryly comic tone is the perfect ity of sound. As before in his work, complement to her intense explora- Longley writes about the First World tions of painful realities: poverty, War as if he had participated in it insanity, cruelty. The plot concerns himself (so close he is to his father’s a single mother voluntarily embrac- experience of the trenches), and can ing a poor rural life as she raises her write about flowers as if he were the young daughter. Both are spiritual first poet to do so. seekers who encounter Mormonism at key moments in their lives: the

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novel’s droll explorations of believ- the 1990s, both inspirational and ers’ ideals, doubts, and foibles is as moving. original a narrative treatment as you will find (and a much cheaper ticket Amina Gautier, At-Risk, The than Broadway’s Book of Mormon). University of Georgia Press, 2011. NDR contributor (but not a gradu- Tony D’Souza, Mule, Mariner ate) prize-winning first (The Flan- Books, 2011. NDR contributor, nery O’Connor Award) short story ND creative writing program alum, collection, which reprints two of D’Souza’s third novel is, according her stories that appeared in these to Walter Kim, “the sort of novel I pages. It was no surprise to us that love: it solves nothing but explains she won such a high-status award. everything. It also, thanks to its The publicity materials included wicked style and pacing, lets me with the book report that Gautier is forget I’m reading serious literature only the second African-American while I follow its terrifying story writer to win the contest in its 30- into the land of the all-American year history. What is more notable damned.” A departure in content is the quality of the stories, which from D’Souza’s first two novels, the also update the usual Flannery award-winning Whiteman, and the O’Connor winner’s content: citified, growing-up novel, The Konkans, but frisky, adventurous and redolent not a change from his central con- of social concerns. Gautier’s stories cerns: human beings under stress, do not resemble anyone else’s, one facing large and long odds, while reason why we are so proud to have attempting to remain sentient and published her. honorable, nonetheless. Lisa Norris, Women Who Sleep With Renee E. D’Aoust, Body of a Dancer, Animals, Stephen F. Austin State Etruscan, 2011. Yet another ND University Press, 2011. Another alum, and NDR contributor, NDR contributor and prize winner D’Aoust’s first book, is a remarkable (the Stephen F. Austin State Univer- feat about remarkable feet. Almost sity Press Prize in Fiction), her first every chapter, when published as an volume of short fiction, about which individual essay, has been cited by the always reliable Lore Segal has The Best American Essaysvolume as written, “Lisa Norris writes lusty, a notable one, in numerous years, generous, sophisticated stories about including 2009, when “Holy Feet” what is harshest in our lives. What’s appeared in these pages. More than more—they’re a pleasure to read.” a dance book, a memoir of a life The collection’s first story, “Dark lived vigorously in the New York of Matter,” which NDR published with

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great delight, begins with the line, ment of literature to have lost track “So we’re making love, you know, of the aesthetic dimension essential and Al is having a good time,” and for the full appreciation of literature sets the tone for what’s to come. and life.” A splendid volume that Fiction of the highest quality, full of captures the man. fury, faith and laughter. Joe Francis Doerr, Ed., The Salt Floyd Skloot, Cream of Kohlrabi, Companion to John Matthias, Salt, Tupelo Press, 2011. One more 2011. These “incisive” essays (20 NDR contributor, the versatile and plus an interview), as Marjorie acclaimed Skloot’s first, it appears, Perloff writes, “on the particulars of collection of short fictions. Medi- Matthias’s challenging poetry make cal subjects abound in these stories clear that what is needed today is a Richard Bausch praises as ones that larger, more capacious conception have a “brave, luminous, searingly of postmodern poetics, one that unswerving vision of life that exists avoids the usual classification so so powerfully in those persistent as to redraw the boundaries of the dreams we have for ourselves.” The field.” From contributors Michael indignities of old age recreated by Anania to John Wilkinson, with all the venerable author of 17 books, manner of alphabetical colleagues in seven of them collections of poetry. between, cover the aesthetic water- Fine writing rendered by a fine front, give Matthias’s stunning out- mind. put of the last 15 years the consid- eration it deserves. Not a Festschrift, Samuel Hazo, The Stroke of a Pen, but the volume is a celebration of University of Notre Dame Press, sorts. 2011. An ND undergraduate alum and contributor to NDR, Hazo’s first book published by Notre Dame Press, though his volume total (of poetry, fiction, essays and plays) is now in the 30s. A collection of incidental nonfiction pieces, some memoiristic, others criticism of poetry, music, all full of literary eru- dition and learning lived through a decidedly hands-on approach, which will interest those, as Daniel Tobin writes, “who judge the balkanized, theory-and-jargon-driven engage-

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Editor’s Note

With this issue John Matthias steps down as Poetry Editor (and also as co-editor of the NDR); but he will still be actively involved as an Editor at Large, contributing regular pieces along the lines of the one that ap- pears in this issue and, occasionally, commissioning poems and reviews. Filling the position going forward of Poetry Editor will be Orlando Menes, who has been the assistant poetry editor for the last two years. I will continue as Editor. John has been here since the beginning (1995) of the NDR, from the small windowless office in the bottom of the Hesburgh Library, to the small, but windowed, office in Flanner Hall. Over the sixteen years of the NDR’s existence, its poetry often has been singled out by the annual best-of volumes and the number of poets both young and established published herein has reached the thousands. John, of course, co-edited our 2009 volume, Notre Dame Review: The First Ten Years, which showcases the poetry of those early years. In addi- tion, the critical coverage of poetry in the pages of the NDR rivals that of any other publication, all brought into existence by the perspicacity, persistence and hard work of John Matthias. We here at the NDR, as well as the larger poetry community world-wide, owe John a deep debt of gratitude.

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