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He Held Radical Light book cover
He Held Radical Light
The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art
2018
First Published
4.29
Average Rating
128
Number of Pages

A moving meditation on memory, oblivion, and eternity by one of our most celebrated poets What is it we want when we can't stop wanting? And how do we make that hunger productive and vital rather than corrosive and destructive? These are the questions that animate Christian Wiman as he explores the relationships between art and faith, death and fame, heaven and oblivion. Above all, He Held Radical Light is a love letter to poetry, filled with moving, surprising, and sometimes funny encounters with the poets Wiman has known. Seamus Heaney opens a suddenly intimate conversation about faith; Mary Oliver puts half of a dead pigeon in her pocket; A. R. Ammons stands up in front of an audience and refuses to read. He Held Radical Light is as urgent and intense as it is lively and entertaining—a sharp sequel to Wiman's earlier memoir, My Bright Abyss.

Avg Rating
4.29
Number of Ratings
606
5 STARS
49%
4 STARS
35%
3 STARS
13%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

Christian Wiman
Christian Wiman
Author · 11 books
Christian Wiman is an American poet and editor born in 1966 and raised in West Texas. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003 he became editor of the oldest American magazine of verse, Poetry.
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