Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. This book of interviews with seven senior American poets—Jack Gilbert, Donald Hall, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin, Lucille Clifton, Ruth Stone, and Robert Bly—and essays on Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell's correspondence, specifically her delicate outrage over his use of his wife's and daughter's letters in his 1974 book, The Dolphin, James Wright's poem "To the Muse," and Philip Levine's poems "The Simple Truth" and "Call It Music," presents a broad view of the bold and original epoch in contemporary American poetry following World War II. In their wise and always engaging responses and commentaries, deNiord's subjects reflect candidly on their careers and the unprecedented big tent of American poetry today.

"Chard deNiord is master of the immersed conversation. Informed, curious, knowing when to contend and when to unbend, he meets each of his poets on the high ground of their art, and seduces from them their most closely-held wisdom. SAD FRIENDS, DROWNED LOVERS, STAPLED SONGS is at once a schooling and a delight."—Sven Birkerts