false 155377 25 23 ]]> female 1952/01/10 199673 266126 0393316548 9780393316544 26 <![CDATA[The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223676426m/266126.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223676426s/266126.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/266126.The_Poet_s_Companion_A_Guide_to_the_Pleasures_of_Writing_Poetry 4.15 232 The Poet's Companion, "that would focus on both craft and process." The book they have created is an impassioned exploration of poetry writing that addresses subject matter, craft, and the writing life. The reigning wisdom is that poets, like other creative writers, should write what they know. "The trick," say the authors, "is to find out what we know, challenge what we know, own what we know, and then give it away in language." Elsewhere they add that, while "as poets, we need to write from our experience ... that experience may be mental, emotional, and imaginative as well as physical."

Addonizio and Laux are lively spokespersons for the poet's life; they pepper their thoughts with well-chosen poems from their contemporaries--including David Bottoms, Jack Gilbert, Linda Gregg, and Jane Kenyon--and they conclude each short chapter with an invigorating collection of ideas for writing. These "ideas" culminate in a terrific section of writing exercises at book's end: write a poem describing "your most acutely embarrassing moment"; "write a poem of praise for an unlikely group of people, things, ideas"; "write a poem about the last time you saw a loved one you lost." I found myself a bit frustrated by the brevity of the discussions (most chapters are under 10 pages) and a bit put off by the first person plural narrative (do Addonizio and Laux really agree on everything they say they agree on?), but these are mere quibbles. This is a fine book indeed. --Jane Steinberg

]]> 56892 3.90 1101 152 155377 4.36 801 109 1997 515192 1880238071 9781880238073 21 <![CDATA[What We Carry]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448764m/515192.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448764s/515192.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515192.What_We_Carry 4.47 176 155377 4.36 801 109 1994 515188 0393329623 9780393329629 28 <![CDATA[Facts About the Moon: Poems]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448762m/515188.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448762s/515188.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515188.Facts_About_the_Moon_Poems 4.36 152 "Laux writes gritty, tough, lyrical poems that depict the actual nature of life in the West today."—Philip Levine

In her powerful fourth collection, Dorianne Laux once again strikes fire from neighborhood moments: a quiet street at dusk, a pool hall, a bare tree. Focusing on the grace of working people, she captures the pain and beauty of women in all their variety, caught in the "lunar pull" of our time.]]> 155377 4.36 801 109 2005 515187 1880238861 9781880238868 14 <![CDATA[Smoke (American Poets Continuum: 62)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448762m/515187.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448762s/515187.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515187.Smoke 4.45 111 What We Carry, a finalist for the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. In Smoke, Laux revisits familiar themes of family, working class lives and the pleasures of the body in poetry that is vital and artfully crafted-poetry that "gets hard in the face of aloofness," in the words of one reviewer. In Smoke, as in her previous work, Laux weaves the warp and woof of ordinary lives into extraordinary and complex tapestries. In "The Shipfitter's Wife," a woman recalls her husband's homecoming at the end of his work day:

Then I'd open his clothes and take
the whole day inside me-the ship's
gray sides, the miles of copper pipe,
the voice of the foreman clanging
off the hull's silver ribs. Spark of lead
kissing metal. The clamp, the winch,
the white fire of the torch, the whistle,
and the long drive home.
And in the title poem, Laux muses on her own guilty pleasures:
Who would want to give it up, the coal
a cat's eye in the dark room, no one there
but you and your smoke, the window
cracked to street sounds, the distant cries
of living things. Alone, you are almost
safe . . .

With her keen ear and attentive eye, Dorianne Laux offers us a universe with which we are familiar, but gives it to us fresh.

Dorianne Laux is the author of two previous collections of poetry from BOA Editions, Ltd., and is co-author, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Joys of Writing Poetry (W.W. Norton, 1997), chosen as an alternate selection by several bookclubs. A tenured professor in the creative writing program at the University of Oregon, Laux lives in Eugene, Oregon.
]]> 155377 4.36 801 109 2000 515189 0918526779 9780918526779 6 <![CDATA[Awake]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515189.Awake 4.55 67 155377 4.36 801 109 1990 2714688 9781890193782 4 <![CDATA[Superman: The Chapbook]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1201811223m/2714688.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1201811223s/2714688.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2714688.Superman_The_Chapbook 4.60 25 155377 4.36 801 109 2008 463016 0961840919 9780961840914 1 <![CDATA[Three West Coast Women]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/463016.Three_West_Coast_Women 4.00 2 56892 3.90 1101 152 155377 4.36 801 109 1987 515190 188821919X 9781888219197 0 <![CDATA[From Sweetness]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448763m/515190.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448763s/515190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515190.From_Sweetness 4.00 1 20358 3.64 127 48 155377 4.36 801 109 2001 515199 1890771201 9781890771201 0 <![CDATA[A Community of Words: A Directory of Literary Readings and Workshops in California]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448798m/515199.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175448798s/515199.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/515199.A_Community_of_Words_A_Directory_of_Literary_Readings_and_Workshops_in_California 0.0 0 155377 4.36 801 109 1999 787894 0895946556 9780895946553 0 <![CDATA[Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Stories by Women]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/787894.Breaking_Up_is_Hard_to_Do_Stories_by_Women 0.0 0 413517 0.0 0 0 155377 4.36 801 109 226812 3.71 747 150 1994