Keeping My Name

Keeping My Name bears the stamp of an assured poet already known in New Formalist circles for her work in meter and rhyme. With a distinctive blend of craft and deep feeling, clarity and subtle thought, Tufariello gives new resonance to the historical and mythic past and draws larger significance from contemporary life. Reflecting a particular interest in and compassion for the lives of women, past and present, the work's five sections offer a variety of repasts. One brings freshness and immediacy to women of the Old and New Testaments. Another traces the dissolution of a marriage; a third, the experience -- rarely represented in poetry -- of infertility and its high-tech treatment. At center, counterpoising contemporary poems of love and grief, is a series of translations from Petrarch and other classic Italian love poets. Tufariello addresses loss and longing, yet discovers joy in everyday things -- a walrus being fed at an aquarium, a small girl dancing at a wedding, a basketball game on a city playground. Her warmth, tempered by wit, is unsentimental. Readers who appreciate well-made, accessible poems will find much to savor here.

Catherine Tufariello has taught literature and writing courses at Cornell, The College of Charleston, and the University of Miami. Her poems and translations have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry and The Hudson Review.