Imaginary Poets
2005
First Published
4.00
Average Rating
148
Number of Pages
The Imaginary Poets presents exceptional work from major poets who delight in assuming a new persona. But the book's ultimate goal is to explore the nature of what is it to make a poem? to make up a poet? To ""translate"" a workis that rewriting or writing? What about translating a work that never existed? What does it mean if you create the creator? In the tradition of Pessoa and Borges, The Imaginary Poets delves delightedly into the very act of invention with a wink, a smile and tremendous respect for the art. Translate a poem into English, offer a biography of the poet, and then write a short essay in which the poem, the poet, and the corpus are consideredand make all of it up, without once indicating you have done so. Thus charged were the twenty-two contributors to this volume, who in response produced poems ""translated"" from eighteen languages including Dirja, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and even from Egyptian hieroglyphs, poems that may be read in the grand literary tradition of heteronyms and alter egos... Alan Michael Parker Contributors include Aliki Barnstone, Josh Bell, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Martha Collins, Annie Finch, Judith Hall, Barbara Hamby, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Garrett Hongo, Andrew Hudgins, David Kirby, Maxine Kumin, Khaled Mattawa, D.A. Powell, Kevin Prufer, Anna Rabinowitz, Victoria Redel, David St. John, Mark Strand, Thom Ward, Rosanna Warren, and Eleanor Wilner
Avg Rating
4.00
Number of Ratings
26
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
38%
3 STARS
31%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
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Author
Alan Michael Parker
Author · 10 books
Alan Michael Parker is the author of eight books of poems, four novels, and editor of five reference works on poetry. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals. Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English, and in the University of Tampa low-residency M.F.A. program. His awards include three Pushcart Prizes, the 2013 and 2014 Randall Jarrell Award, the North Carolina Book Award, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America.
