David St. John & Susan Terris - An Afternoon in Conversation (Corte Madera)

In The Last Troubadour, David St. John has given us a collection of new and selected poems of astonishing beauty, precise and keenly observed but also touched with sensuality and deep feeling. Nothing is too small to escape notice (in “Guitar” St. John reflects on the beauty of that word) or too large to be explored-the suicide of a friend, the illness of a lover, or the texture of longing and desire. A sharp observer of landscapes within and without, St. John directs his empathetic gaze and vivid, inventive voice to investigating both the darkest and the most inspiring parts of being human, the small moments between friends and lovers as well as the groundswells that alter lives.

At times lyrical, sometimes conversational, occasionally wry and playful, St. John’s poetry reveals an expansive vision animated by “intimacy and subtlety, and by a disturbing force, the work of an urgent sensibility and a true ear.” (W.S. Merwin) The beauty, music, and artistry of David St. John’s widely admired work is fully on display in this masterful collection.

David St. John is the author of eleven collections of poetry (including Study for the World’s Body, nominated for The National Book Award in Poetry) as well as a volume of essays, interviews and reviews entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us. He is University Professor and Chair of English at The University of Southern California, and lives in Venice Beach, California.

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Susan Terris's Take Two: Film Studies is a series of dazzling poems about pairs who are heading in one way or another for trouble, disaster, or death. Each poem is a kind of filmic scene, which has a few movie terms embedded as parenthetical script directives.

The text spins back and forth in time from the era of Beowulf to that of Jacqueline Kennedy. There are traditional couples like Abélard & Héloïse or Bonnie & Clyde. But many of the pairs are unexpected: Sancho Panza & his donkey Dapple, Mary Shelley & her monster, Picasso & a portrait of Dora Maar, or Lady Macbeth & King Duncan. Expect the unexpected in this volume. No matter what you think you know about a pair, you may be in for a dark surprise.

Susan Terris's most recent books are Memos and Ghost of Yesterday: New & Selected Poems. She is the author of six books of poetry, sixteen chapbooks, three artist’s books, and one play. Journal publications include The Southern Review, Colorado Review, and Ploughshares. A poem of hers from FIELD appeared in Pushcart Prize XXXI. A poem from Memos, first published in the Denver Quarterly, was selected for Best American Poetry 2015. She is the editor of Spillway Magazine and a poetry editor for Pedestal Magazine.

Location: 

51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Take Two: Film Studies By Susan Terris Cover Image
for information about purchasing this book, please contact orders@bookpassage.com
ISBN: 9781632430472
Published: Omnidawn - October 3rd, 2017