Yellow Shoe Poets: Selected Poems, 1964–1999 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807124516 ISBN 13: 9780807124512

Publisher: LSU Press, 1999

Synopsis

Since 1964, when Louisiana State University Press published its inaugural book of verse (Miller Williams’s A Circle of Stone), its poetry list has grown exponentially―191 books by 93 poets―into a program that inspires understandable pride in those associated with it. Two collections have won the Pulitzer Prize―The Flying Change (1986), by Henry Taylor, and Alive Together (1996), by Lisel Mueller. Another book by Mueller, The Need to Hold Still (1980), won the National Book Award, while several other LSU titles have been finalists for that distinction, most recently The Fields of Praise (1997), by Marilyn Nelson, and The Vigil (1993), by Margaret Gibson. Dozens more have been recognized for their excellence through a host of various honors. The Press publishes the winner of the annual Walt Whitman Award, given by The Academy of American Poets for a first collection; and in 1996 it launched the Southern Messenger series in collaboration with Dave Smith, bringing two shining works into the fold each year. The appearance of The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren in 1998 meant for the Press the realization of a long, dearly held dream.

To mark this thirty-five-year-old tradition as the century and millennium turn, and to offer a sampling of its richness, The Yellow Shoe Poets, a retrospective anthology, was compiled under the editorship of George Garrett, a longtime colleague of the Press and the author of eight poetry volumes. (Say “the LSU poets” real fast with a southern drawl and you get the ridiculously wonderful moniker that poet Elizabeth Seydel Morgan’s young friend innocently mistook for this noble band. It’s an image Brendan Galvin has appropriated to a perfect fit in his poem “Yellow Shoe Poet,” written on behalf of his fellow “yellow shoes” across the years.)

All 173 poems are taken from LSU Press books and were selected by the poets themselves, if living. Arranged alphabetically by author, they consist of at least one poem from every poet published by the Press. Goethe’s admonition that “one ought every day at least, to read a good poem” can find no better starting point than in The Yellow Shoe Poets.

About this title

About the Author:

George Garrett is the author or editor of more than forty books, including the poetry collection Days of Our Lives Lie in Fragments: New and Old Poems, 1957–1997. He has won numerous awards, among them the Rome Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the T.S. Eliot Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction. He is Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.

From Library Journal:

What, you might ask, is a "yellow shoe" poet? If you skip the introduction to this fine, interesting anthology, you won't have a clue; it's simply LSU (Louisiana State University) poets said with a Southern drawl. Unfortunately, the title reveals nothing of the wealth of poetry inside. Including at least one poem from every poetry book published by LSU Press since the inauguration of its poetry series in 1964Aover 200 books, representing over 90 poetsAthe collection offers such well-known poets as Margaret Gibson, Dave Smith, Lisel Mueller, and Robert Penn Warren and many other excellent but less-famous poets. What makes this anthology even more inviting is that the living poets selected the poems themselves. Unfortunately, in some cases a poet is represented by only one poem, but the more widely published poets have as many as four. Inevitably, the collection offers a hodgepodge of styles and subjects, but this variety allows for a wide look at contemporary American poetry. Recommended for both public and academic collections.ADoris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0807124516
• ISBN 13: 9780807124512
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Garrett George