Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, American Poetry, Poetry Writing

My Business Is Circumference: Poets on Influence and Mastery

Name: My Business Is Circumference: Poets on Influence and Mastery
Author: Stephen Berg
ISBN: 9780966491395

by Stephen Berg

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Overview

Twenty-eight distinguished contemporary American poets provide a multifaceted view of the creative process. Each poet has contributed a poem and chosen several poems by other poets that have influenced it. In an essay, each poet then describes how those influences have led to a sense of poetic mastery.

The Contributors:

A.R. Ammons
L.S. Asekoff
Stephanie Brown
Hayden Carruth
Gillian Conoley
Amy Gerstler
Judith Hall
Hunt Hawkins
Jane Hirshfield
Claudia Keelan
Yusef Komunyakaa
Lisa Lewis
Dana Levin
Laurence Lieberman
Thomas Lux
Jane Mead
Jack Myers
Donald Revell
Len Roberts
Michael Ryan
Ira Sadoff
Hugh Seidman
Jennifer Snyder Gerald Stern
Lucien Stryk
Karen Volkman
Ted Weiss
Joe Wenderoth

"Anyone interested in how language calls to language, and heart to heart, will find these pages irresistible." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"In this quirky, resonant, and necessary book, generously edited by Stephen Berg, a wide range of American poets at all stages of their writing lives offer their poems and choose their precursors, meditating with great humility and insight on the dual mysteries of influence and mastery, on the reading that fosters writing, on the shimmering nobility of poetry itself." —Edward Hirsch, Author of How to Read a Poem

Synopsis

Contemporary American poets provide a multifaceted view of the creative process.

Philadelphia Inquirer

"Anyone interested in how language calls to language, and heart to heart, will find these pages irresistible."

About the Author, Stephen Berg

Stephen Berg, founding editor of American Poetry Review, is the author of two dozen books of poetry and translations. He is a professor of English at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

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Editorials

Philadelphia Inquirer

"Anyone interested in how language calls to language, and heart to heart, will find these pages irresistible."

Publishers Weekly

From arriv?s Amy Gerstler, Jane Hirshfield and Yusef Komunyakaa to arrivistes Dana Levin and Jennifer Snyder, My Business Is Circumference: Poets on Influence and Mastery, edited by founding co-editor of the American Poetry Review Stephen Berg (Shaving), features poets discussing their favorite writers. Gillian Conoley elects Mallarm?, Jack Spicer, Dickinson and Foucault as her most prominent influences. Hayden Carruth asserts that, though "the Big-Ass poets" won't admit it, poetry by "a third-grader from Abilene can enlarge one's sensibilities and set them ticking." The range of aesthetic and intellectual projects in this collection will behoove many poets. (July) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Berg, coeditor of the landmark 1960s anthology Naked Poetry and founder of the American Poetry Review, asked an assortment of poets to present a poem of their own along with several poems that had influenced their work. Also required was an essay about mastery and influence with reference to the chosen poems. In the end, 28 poets undertook this mission, an odd mix of mostly white, mostly older male poets Hayden Carruth, Gerald Stern, Ira Sadoff, Hugh Seidman, Theodore Weiss, Yusef Komunkayaa, and others with white female writers all under the age of 50, including Stephanie Brown, Dana Levin, Jane Hirshfield, and Jane Mead, some of whom will be new to readers. That most of the chosen influences predate the 20th century is explained by Amy Gerstler's comment that contributors were asked to use work in the public domain whenever possible. This known, some of the choices will still delight: no one but the late A.R. Ammons could have come up with Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Rhodora." The younger poets male and female steal the show here; while many skirt the topic of mastery with respect to their own work, they are passionate about their influences, which range from Sei Shonagon to Walt Whitman to Sharon Olds. Although weakly conceived, this work is stocked with interesting tidbits, including biographies and photos. For larger collections. Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine LLP Law Lib., New York Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.