This well-respected interview series welcomes Charles Simic. The University of New Hampshire poet is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary American poetry. Recipient of numerous awards and prizes, Simic answers questio

Charles Simic and the Poetics of Uncertainty provides the first full account of the poetics of the former US Poet Laureate, who is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed English-language poets writing today. The book argues for uncertainty as the center of Simic’s poetics and addresses the ways that his poetry grows from and navigates various forms of uncertainty. Donovan McAbee addresses uncertainty regarding the national character of Simic’s poetry and how this is complicated by Simic’s identity as a Yugoslavian refugee to the United States. The book assesses the theological and linguistic uncertainties of Simic’s poetry and explores the ways that Simic articulates the aesthetic space created by poems, as a safe place of encounter for the reader. The book argues for the role of humor as a primary mode that holds together the uncertainties of Simic’s poetry, and finally, it articulates the way that within these uncertainties, Simic develops a deeply humane political poetry of survival. Along the way, Simic’s work is placed in conversation with key influences and other important American and international poets and writers, including James Tate, Mark Strand, Charles Wright, Nicanor Parra, Vasko Popa, and others.

A Study Guide for Charles Simic's "Prodigy," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

This is the fourteenth volume from Between The Lines, and it marks an interesting departure from the previous thirteen, featuring as it does three poets, not just one, each of whom is rather younger than the poets appearing in the earlier books. Though younger each has a claim to being called "senior," having a long list of highly regarded publications behind them, and a number of coveted honors and awards to his/her name. The three poets have been questioned at length about their life and their work by three distinguished poet-critics: Clive Wilmer, Isaac Cates, and Cynthia Haven. Their carefully meditated responses will be helpful to the general reader and the specialist alike. The three poets interviewed are Tim Steele, who teaches at California State University, Dick Davis, who teaches at Ohio State University, and Rachel Hadas, who teaches at Rutgers University.

"American Writers focuses on the rich diversity of American novelists

Ian Hamilton (1938-2001) was truly a British man of letters in the finest sense of the term. As a young man he co-founded the influential magazine, The Review, and started a short while later the magazine Tomorrow. He was for a time the fiction and p