Abacus

Described admiringly as "a scrappy little beast" in Salon magazine in 1997, Karr is a controversial figure in the American poetry "establishment," thanks to her Pushcart-award winning essay, "Against Decoration." She's gained wider acclaim for her award-winning The Liar's Club. Abacus, her first book, which has been out of print for nearly twenty years, is again available in the Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporaries Series.

Mary Karr's three volumes of poetry are Abacus, The Devil's Tour, and Viper Rum. Her memoir, Cherry, published in 2000, was also a New York Times bestseller. She is a Jesse Truesdale Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.