The Bloomsbury Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry

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With chapters written by leading scholars such as Steven Gould Axelrod, Cary Nelson, and Marjorie Perloff, this comprehensive Handbook explores the full range and diversity of poetry and criticism in 21st-century America. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry covers such topics as: Major histories and genealogies of post-war poetry from the language poets and the Black Arts Movement to New York school and the Beats Poetry, identity and community from African American, Chicana/o and Native American poetry to Queer verse and the poetics of disability Key genres and forms including digital, visual, documentary and childrens poetry Central critical themes economics, publishing, popular culture, ecopoetics, translation and biography The book also includes an interview section in which major contemporary poets such as Rae Armantrout, and Claudia Rankine reflect on the craft and value of poetry today.

Reviews

Handbooks of this kind rarely if ever give the poets themselves the microphone. I wish more would follow The Bloomsburys example. The questions poised are provocative and the answers illuminating (and sometimes suggestively elusive) ... A charming, idiosyncratic, and weirdly seductive map to a whole lot of poems. * The Robert Graves Review *
This is such a wonderful anomaly among handbooks of poetry that I read it in one sitting. It is multicultural and multifaceted, personal and provocative, witty and wacky. The Handbook is an exciting mlange that will appeal to every scholar, student, and lover of American poetry. * Marian Janssen, Researcher at Radboud Institute for Culture and History, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands *
Steven Gould Axelrod and Craig Svonkin sought a whale of a book. Well, harpoon one they have, and no harm done. They right this vessel, sail the main of contemporary American poetry, and provision all with rich chowder. The crew within is as diverse, though better starred, than any that ever allegorized the decks of a Pequod. Here, surely, is a mast-head from which to survey our present literary horizons. Is this book indispensable Reader, it is more. Climb aboard. * Mark Richardson, Professor of English, Doshisha University, JAPAN *
Joy and playfulness abound throughout The Bloomsbury Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry. Its marked by a hip kind of New York Schoolish teasing subversion, making for a delightful read (it modulates into more overtly serious topics too, of course, and even play is taken seriously or maybe rigorously would be the more appropriate word). But as I suggested earlier, it doesnt forget poems in its attention to literary history, poetics, and poets. One of the best parts of the book (also in the childrens poetry colloquy), is by our fellow Gravesian Michael Joseph, the editor of The Robert Graves Review and a poet himself. His piece concludes the colloquy, and while it is an extended response to Svonkins question, What advice might you offer scholars wanting to join the discussion of North American children's poetry (p. 351), it functions equally well as advice for any scholar choosing to join the discussion surrounding poetry of any kind. It also captures the canny wit and subversive charm of The Bloomsbury itself. * The Robert Graves Review *

Author Bio

Craig Svonkin is Professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA. He is co-author (with Emory Elliott) of New Directions in American Literary Scholarship: 1980-2002 (2004). Steven Gould Axelrod is Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside, USA. He is co-editor of The New Anthology of American Poetry: Volumes 1-3 (2002-2012), editor of Robert Lowell's Memoirs (2019) and a former President of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association (2004-6).