Speakers in Anticipate the Coming Reservoir return to and survey terrain that was once their own and find it strangely defamiliarized. As they process the changes--changes they generally see as suspect--these characters seek, and sometimes find, something like balance between nostalgia and terra incognita. This collection may be, as Natasha Trethewey writes, "his nostos," but it is also John Hoppenthaler's paen to existential resolve as it is exhibited by souls who possess, as David Baker describes it, "all our wounded, belated psyches."
Speakers in Anticipate the Coming Reservoir return to and survey terrain that was once their own and find it strangely defamiliarized. As they process...
Over the course of more than four decades, contemporary American poet Jean Valentine has written eleven books of stunning, spirit-inflected poetry. This collection of essays, assembled over several years by Kazim Ali and John Hoppenthaler, brings together twenty-six pieces on all stages of Valentine's career by a range of poets, scholars, and admirers.
Valentine's poetry has long been valued for its dreamlike qualities, its touches of the personal and the political, and its mesmerizing phrasing. Valentine is a National Book Award winner and was named the State Poet of New York in...
Over the course of more than four decades, contemporary American poet Jean Valentine has written eleven books of stunning, spirit-inflected poetry....