Description:
"Careful, attentive, sometimes consoling, heartbreaking or plangent where no consolation can be found." --Stephanie Burt, New York Times Book Review
A monumental celebration of "one of the most significant poets writing today" (David Baker, Los Angeles Review of Books).
Brief description: Ellen Bryant Voigt (1943--2025) was the author of eight volumes of poetry, including Messenger, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her numerous honors included fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations.
Review Quotes: These poems, collected from eight books dating back to 1976, establish Voigt as one of the most proficient and accomplished poets writing today. Infusing narrative with lyric power, these precise, yet visceral entries engage with ordinary people in their strangeness, as well as with animals domesticated and wild.... [E]ach poem achieves, through earned emotion and vision, broader impact. A trained pianist since childhood, Voigt is a musician at heart and a formalist who rarely works in received forms. This rewarding and expansive work does justice to her commendable vision and ear.--Publishers Weekly, starred review