From Publishers Weekly
Edward Hirsch, Thomas Lux, Louise Gl ck and Stephen Dobyns are some of the bards showcased in Hammer and Blaze: A Gathering of Contemporary American Poets. The volume gathers work by poets who have taught at the Warren Wilson MFA Program, including editors Ellen Bryant Voigt (Kyrie) and Heather McHugh (The Father of the Predicaments). A range of styles is reflected, from Carl Phillips's neoclassical lyrics to Campbell McGrath's "Because This Is Florida": "Because this is Florida, we can be what we choose to be,/ say, Dixie-fried Cubano rednecks. It's that kind of place./ When the heavy metal band plays 'Rocky Top, Tennessee'...." (Aug.) Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hammer and Blaze provides a true cross-section of the best contemporary poets writing in North America today. Editors Ellen Bryant Voigt and Heather McHugh have brought together the work of sixty poets who have taught at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, one of the most respected and influential writing programs of its kind.
The stellar group of contributors includes MacArthur fellows Campbell McGrath, Anne Carson, Edward Hirsch, Eleanor Wilner, Susan Stewart, and Lucia Perillo. Also represented here are works by Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn and Louise Glück; Ruth Lilly Prize winner Carl Dennis; and Robert Wrigley, Thomas Lux, and B. H. Fairchild, winners of the Kingsley Tufts Award. From the couplets of Pablo Medina to the neoclassical lyricisms of Carl Phillips, this anthology appropriately reflects the cross-cultural nature of contemporary North American poetry with its most diverse and prestigious voices. A number of the poems are previously unpublished, including work by Joan Aleshire, Stuart Dischell, Stephen Dobyns, Stephen Dunn, Roland Flint, Carol Frost, Barbara Greenberg, Edward Hirsch, Pablo Medina, Steve Orlen, Gregory Orr, Kathleen Peirce, Kenneth Rosen, Daniel Tobin, Alan Williamson, and Eleanor Wilner.
Hammer and Blaze, a gathering of our best poets, should garner attention from the literary world at large as well as from students of contemporary poetry and creative writing.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly