Personal Effects; New and Selected Poems

Daniel J. Langton was born in Paterson, New Jersey and raised in East Harlem with his brothers and sister. He is married to Eve and they have a son, Mark. They live in San Francisco, where he teaches English and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. His poetry has appeared in such journals as the Nation, the Paris Review, the Atlantic Monthly, the TLS, the Harvard Advocate and the Iowa Review, and has been awarded the London Prize, the Devins Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award and others. This is his seventh collection. Daniel J. Langton was launched into a life of writing poetry by William Carlos Williams. As he tells the story, "When I was just starting out, I went to a reading by William Carlos Williams. Afterward I showed him a poem of mine, and he told me, I don't care what you're doing, quit your job, and write nothing but poetry. And that's what happened." SOME COMMENTS ON EARLIER BOOKS BY DANIEL J. LANGTON "These poems have a lovely pacing and interior radiance." -Tess Gallagher . . ."superbly written, beautifully controlled, and yet continually freshened by a kind and fresh imagination." -Robert Bly . . ."such beauty, so moving, so beautifully made that I have to tell you it is one of the finest lyrics in the language." -William Carlos Williams "The poems I have known before are as fresh as ever. The new ones shimmer." -Pamela Skewes-Cox "Dan Langton may be America's greatest living poet." -Richard Martin