We Begin in Gladness by Craig Morgan Teicher

We Begin in Gladness by Craig Morgan Teicher

One of our most perceptive critics on the ways that poets develop poems, a career, and a life

Though it seems, at first, like an art of speaking, poetry is an art of listening. The poet trains to hear clearly and, as much as possible, without interruption, the voice of his or her mind, the voice that gathers, packs with meaning, and unpacks the language he or she knows. It can take a long time to learn to let this voice speak without getting in its way. This slow learning, the growth of this habit of inner attentiveness, is poetic development, and it is the substance of the poet's art. Of course, this growth is rarely steady, never linear, and is sometimes not actually growth but diminishment--that's all part of the compelling story of a poet's way forward.
--from the Introduction

The staggering thing about a life's work is it takes a lifetime to complete, Craig Morgan Teicher writes in these luminous essays. We Begin in Gladness considers how poets start out, how they learn to hear themselves, and how some offer us that rare, glittering thing: lasting work. Teicher traces the poetic development of the works of Sylvia Plath, John Ashbery, Louise Gluck, and Francine J. Harris, among others, to illuminate the paths they forged--by dramatic breakthroughs or by slow increments, and always by perseverance. We Begin in Gladness is indispensable for readers curious about the artistic life and for writers wondering how they might light out--or even scale the peak of the mountain.

Craig Morgan Teicher is the author of two previous books of poetry: Brenda Is in the Room and Other Poems, winner of the 2007 Colorado Prize for Poetry; and To Keep Love Blurry; as well as Cradle Book: Stories and Fables. He is also the editor of Once and for All: The Best of Delmore Schwartz, and his first book of essays about poetry, We Begin in Gladness: On Poetic Development is forthcoming from Graywolf in 2018. He has worked at Publishers Weekly magazine for the last ten years and is currently Director of Digital Operations, where he manages online operations and assets. He also served as PW's poetry reviews editor for eight years. He is a prolific critic and reviewer of poetry, contributing regularly to The New York Times Book Review, The LA Times, NPR, and many other publications. Having previously served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle, he has taught at NYU, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Princeton, and elsewhere, and lives in New Jersey with his wife, the poet Brenda Shaughnessy, and their children.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781555978211
ISBN 10	1555978215
Title	We Begin in Gladness
Author	Craig Morgan Teicher
Condition	Unavailable
Binding type	Paperback
Publisher	Graywolf Press
Year published	2018-12-20
Number of pages	176
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable