In their previous collection Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones coined the term "short" for those creative nonfiction pieces literary rather than informational, and characteristically short that are attracting our finest writers. Now, with a more introspective focus, this new collection emphasizes the personal as "a way of seeing the world, of expressing an interior life. It is intimate without being maudlin, it is private without being secret." From Harriet Doerr's recollection of a halcyon time to Josephine Jacobsen's reverie on memory, In Brief offers vivid glimpses into the ways...

An excellent introduction for readers coming to Stafford for the first time and a valuable overview of the work for the many readers already familiar with his poetry, this book offers the best single guide to one of the most respected and celebrated poets of our time.

"The Circus Train" is an essay of novella length-something for which we have no term. But nevertheless it is meant to stand on its own. Even with the two additional companion essays, The Circus Train is a short book. Its intention is to explore, to argue, and to contemplate. Confronting memory and mortality, Judith Kitchen finds abundance in her own front yard.

The best of short literary memoirs, essays and reflections, many of which were written expressly for this collection.

Contains eighteen of the nearly fifty essays on poetry that Judith Kitchen published in The Georgia Review over a twenty-five-year span. Coming at the genre from every possible angle, this celebrated critic discusses work by older and younger poets, most American but some foreign, and many of whom were not yet part of the contemporary canon.