Literary studies: poetry and poets

A charming collection of quotes about cats from our favourite authors, accompanied by artwork in the trademark style of Paul Magrs (author of The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy). ‘I love them, they are so nice and selfish’ – L.M. MontgomeryThis...

The Portuguese traders who brought Europe to Japan in the sixteenth century were known as 'southern barbarians'. In his new collection John Mateer offers a contemporary re-charting of the Portuguese Empire. This empire is a fugitive one, notable for its...

Storm and Honey is the new collection by prize-winning poet Judith Beveridge. It concentrates in a dramatic way both the raw emotional power and the sweetness which are the essential qualities of Beveridge's verse. Its centrepiece, 'Driftgrounds' is a...

Aileen Palmer poet, translator, political activist, adventurer was the daughter of two writers prominent in Australian literature in the first half of the twentieth century. Vance and Nettie Palmer were well known as...

Randolph Stow was one of the great Australian writers of his generation. His novel To the Islands - written in his early twenties after living on a remote Aboriginal mission - won the Miles Franklin Award for 1958. In later life, after...

This new collection of essays on American poetry by Donald Davie (1922-1995) displays again 'the scale and range' of one of the great 'understanders' of poetry of our century, here fulfilling his chosen role as bridge-builder between poets, poetries and...

Rochester and the pursuit of pleasure provides a reading of Rochester's poems, dramatic works, and letters in a biographical context. In doing so, it sheds light on a central vexed issue in Rochester criticism, the relationship of the poet to his speaker...

The most comprehensive publication of Kodojin beautiful and mysterious a collection of more than 100 paintings with the English translations of his inscribed Chinese poems. The Art and Life of Fukuda Kodojin is the first publication in English to offer...

Liz Lochhead is one of the leading poets writing in Britain today. Her debut collection, Memo for Spring (1972), was a landmark publication. Writing at a time when the landscape of Scottish poetry was male dominated, hers was a fresh, new voice, tackling...

Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey collaborated to help achieve the biggest electoral success for socialism in recent British history. The two men share a passionate belief in a fairer, more equal Britain, encapsulated in Labour's election slogan...

This collected edition of Sorley MacLean brings together published poetry from MacLean's own edited volumes of poetry, poetry previously published in various magazines, literary journals and anthologies, and poetry which has never been published...

Home to fifty-eight author-selected poems and accompanying essays, Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems That Matter Most is a far-reaching, essential touchstone for the art of poetry in the United States today.Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems That...

Mysterious, esoteric, and baffling, John Ashbery is notorious for the seeming difficulty of his work. But Ashbery is also entertaining, humorous, even charming, and ever responsive to his shifting social and political contexts. This biography charts...

The great Romantic poet Lord Byron starved himself compulsively for most of his life. His behaviour mystified his friends and other witnesses, yet he never imagined he was ill. Instead, he rationalised his behaviour as a fight for spiritual freedom and...

Bringing psychoanalysis to bear on the diagnosis of ecological crisisWhy has psychoanalysis long been kept at the margins of environmental criticism despite the many theories of eco-Marxism, queer ecology, and eco-deconstruction available today? What is...

What motivates writers to create purposefully difficult texts? In what ways is textual difficulty politically charged? In this collection of smart and accessible essays, Kristina Marie Darling seeks to answer these questions by delving deeply into the...

The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day...Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard has been loved and admired throughout the centuries. First circulated to a select group of friends, it was rushed to official publication in 1751 in order to...

Painter, poet and actor Salvator Rosa was one of the most engaging and charismatic personalities of seventeenth-century Italy. Although a gifted landscape painter, he longed to be seen as the pre-eminent philosopher-painter of his age. This new account...

In 1801, some five years after Robert Burns' death, nine of his friends sat down to dinner in what is now known as Burns Cottage in Alloway to celebrate his extraordinary life and to give thanks for his friendship. Over the years the informal theme from...

Before he had turned 21, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) upended the house of French poetry and left it in shambles. What makes Rimbaud's poetry important, argues Seth Whidden, is part of what makes his life so compelling: rebellion, audacity, creativity and...

Walt Whitman and His Caribbean Interlocutors: Jos Mart, C.L.R. James, and Pedro Mir explores the writings of Whitman (1819-1892) and of three Caribbean authors who engaged with them. These three interlocutors-the Cuban poet, essayist and revolutionary...

An engaging, moving, and poignant book of poetry from a well-known leader, educator, and writer with notable endorsements from Reverend Billy Talen (Church of Stop Shopping), Carolyn Martin (poetry editor at Kosmos Journal), and Alice Reys (Singer...

"Old Poets is an indispensable jewel." -Washington Post"An astonishing array of encounters...Hall's observations are shrewd and generous." -Boston GlobeIntimate portraits of great poets in old age, giving new insight into their work and their lives, and...

This is Marjorie's sixth book with Coffee House. We're honored that a poet of her stature and influence is loyal to our press. She is truly an icon of experimental and modernist poetry. This collection engages deeply with the challenging legacy of Ezra...

As time has proven, Theory of Prose still remains one of the twentieth century's most significant works of literary theory. It not only anticipates structuralism and poststructuralism, but poses questions about the nature of fiction that are as...

The heat of Beowulf develops a new approach to the aesthetics of Beowulf by engaging with the work of twentieth-century poets Robin Blaser and Jack Spicer, whose avant-garde poetics were informed by a serious encounter with the poem in the seminar of...

This unique and exciting collection, inspired by the scholarship of literary critic Stephanie Trigg, offers cutting-edge responses to the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer for the current critical moment. The chapters are linked by the organic and naturally...

This anthology brings together extensive selections of poetry by the five most prolific and prominent women poets of the English Civil War period: Anne Bradstreet, Hester Pulter, Margaret Cavendish, Katherine Philips and Lucy Hutchinson. It presents...

Read this sequence through from page one, or start at any point and let its circles widen, or perhaps go to the lovely, light-syllabled final lyric and discover interesting ways back. The poems themselves breach back and forth to form a questing...

A monumental event in American poetry, Get the Money!brings together the essential prose writings of iconic New York School poet Ted Berrigan."Ted Berrigan was a leader of the New York School; his crazy energy embodied that movement and the city itself...

This volume celebrates the life and work of Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's greatest modern poet and dramatist. The contributors are a stimulating blend of academics, poets and theatre professionals, all responding in a variety of ways to the creative...

Carmen Conde is a major figure in twentieth-century Spanish poetry. Though neglected up to now, Mientras los hombres mueren is the most important collection of war poetry to emerge from the Spanish Civil War. It was first published, in a limited edition,...

On the 100th anniversary of T. S. Eliot's modernist masterpiece, a rich cultural history of The Waste Land's creation, explosive impact, and enduring influence.When T. S. Eliot published The Waste Land in 1922, it put the thirty-four-year-old author on a...

How rhyme became entangled with debates about the nature of liberty in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English poetry In his 1668 preface to Paradise Lost, John Milton rejected the use of rhyme, portraying himself as a revolutionary freeing English...

How four American cities shaped Poe's life and writingsEdgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) changed residences about once a year throughout his life. Driven by a desire for literary success and the pressures of supporting his family, Poe sought work in American...

An engaging and authoritative introduction to an increasingly important and popular literary genreProse Poetry is the first book of its kind-an engaging and authoritative introduction to the history, development, and features of English-language prose...

The Tablet, Best Books of the YearOpen Magazine's Best Books of 2020A vivid and original account of one of Ireland's greatest poets by an acclaimed Irish historian and literary biographer The most important Irish poet of the postwar...

Bestselling novelist Alexander McCall Smith's charming account of how the poet W. H. Auden has helped guide his life - and how he might guide yours tooWhen facing a moral dilemma, Isabel Dalhousie - Edinburgh philosopher, amateur detective, and...

In this new interpretation of the life and work of the American poet, short-story writer and novelist "Charles Bukowski", David Stephen Calonne examines Bukowski's writings, colourful life and the desperate conditions of his lifestyle, looking at the...

Cross Words refers to cultural hybrids, trans-cultural alliances, and associations. This fascinating compendium documents-in essays, conversations, and socratic raps-the vital work poets perform when they write across borders.Anne Waldman is the author...

This new selection of William Wordsworth's poetry is part of a series of collections from six great nature poets. In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical...

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an...