The Room and the World: Essays on the Poet Stephen Dunn is the first book of its kind to explore and unpack the Pulitzer winning poet’s oeuvre. Including 24 essays, a preface by poet and essayist Smith, and an introduction by McCullough, this anthology illuminates Dunn’s development as a writer, his thematic obsessions, his strategies and maneuvers on the page, and locates him in the pantheon of essential American poets. Philosophical, funny, and founded on the juxtaposition of ideas with masterful tonal layering and texture, Dunn’s poems are considered some of the best of his generation. The contributors, including Dunn’s contemporaries and former students, poets and scholars, highlight Dunn’s meditations on freedom and constraint, sexiness and sorrow, sound and sense, and finding mystery in the dailiness of living. Fans will find this a crucial text that reveals the complexities of Dunn’s poetry and much about the man himself.
Poets and scholars of literature explore several dimensions of Pulitzer Prize winner Dunn's poetry. The topics include the desire to keep saying yes, a certain capaciousness and "the routine things around the house," the despoiled and radiant now, a manifesto of the spiritual and the sacred, the poet's women and the ordinary mysteries, leaving everything behind in "The Affair," double-teaming, Mount Holyoke 1992, the revision process, scattered notes on a coherent poet, and the quarrel. The volume also contains three essays by Dunn himself, his brief answers to unspoken questions, and an interview by McCullough. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
The Room and the World: Essays on the Poet Stephen Dunn is the first book of its kind to explore and unpack the Pulitzer-winning poet’s oeuvre. Including twenty-four essays, a foreword by poet and essayist Dave Smith, and an introduction by Laura McCullough, this anthology illuminates Dunn’s development as a writer, his thematic obsessions, and his strategies and maneuvers on the page; it also locates him in the pantheon of essential American poets. Philosophical, funny, and founded on the juxtaposition of ideas with masterful tonal layering and texture, Dunn’s poems are considered some of the best of his generation. The contributing poets and scholars, including Dunn’s contemporaries and former students, highlight Dunn’s meditations on freedom and constraint, sexuality and sorrow, sound and sense, and the mystery in the dailiness of living. Fans will find this a crucial text that reveals the complexities of Dunn’s poetry and much about the man himself.
