Levi Stahl
Whisky Priest Books
Anyone who frequents the shady corners of the Web where books are discussed is probably familiar with the Caustic Cover Critic blog. Proprietor James Morrison writes about book design–and, let’s be honest, is far too generous with his praise and judicious with his criticism to truly be called caustic–deploying a sharp eye, a ready wit, [...]
Postcards
Though it’s possible that T. S. Eliot was correct when he famously said that “it appears likely that poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult,” there are nonetheless times when difficulty is not what we want. As Nicholson Baker writes in his dizzyingly poetry-besotten novel The Anthologist,
The rhyming of [...]
Pssst! Hey, Santa!
For those of you still shopping . . . poet and Quarterly Conversation contributor Ron Slate has rounded up nineteen poets and gotten them to offer brief notes on their favorite poetry books of the year.
Nineteen! At one per family member, that will probably take you at least through first cousins!
Giacomo Leopardi
In the October 25th issue of the New Yorker, Adam Kirsch–one of the smartest poetry critics working today–wrote about a new translation of the Canti of nineteenth-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi by FSG publisher Jonathan Galassi. Kirsch’s review highlighted the
unremitting quality of Leopardi’s pessimism, the crushing insistence, which distinguishes it from the seductive melancholy of [...]
A free ticket to the Dance!
Being a book publicist—which is what I do in my daily life—is a pretty great way to make a living. Especially if you work, as I do, at a university press: you get to work with smart people to get the word out about smart books. And what could be better than talking to people [...]
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