The Auctioneer Bangs His Gavel

by Benjamin S. Grossberg

“Reading The Auctioneer Bangs His Gavel, I had the sense of finding a poet I’d been looking for one who intertwines a survey of human sexuality (and gay sexuality at that) with theological questions; one who tackles ambitious poetic projects without sounding pretentious; one who writes fables using the ordinary materials of daily reality; one who balances the Jewish sources of the Western tradition with its Hellenic counterpart; one who knows how to be serious with the assistance of laughter; one who can tell a story and excerpt his own autobiography as a way of gaining larger perspectives on experience. ‘No things but in ideas,’ seems to be his aesthetic motto, and that has served him well in his goal―to declare that we are free to follow our natures in the pursuit of happiness.”―Alfred Corn

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2006

About the author

Benjamin S. Grossberg's latest collection of poetry, My Husband Would (University of Tampa Press, 2020), won the 2021 Connecticut Book Award in poetry and was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year. His other collections include Space Traveler (University of Tampa Press, 2014) and Sweet Core Orchard (University of Tampa Press, 2009), winner of the 2008 Tampa Review Prize and the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for poetry. He is also the author of a novel, The Spring Before Obergefell (University of Nebraska Press, 2024), which won the AWP Award Series James Alan McPherson Prize and the 2025 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Romance. His poems have appeared widely, including in The Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry anthologies. He also co-edited the anthology, The Poetry of Capital (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021), which curates poems that address the economic challenges of our moment. Ben is Director of Creative Writing at the University of Hartford.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Richards]

reading this right now. amazing poet who needs to be known far and wide.

[Broadsided Press -]

Benjamin Grossberg has been Broadsided on July 1, 2009. Artist Jennifer Bevill responded visually to his poem. Visit http://www.broadsidedpress.org to see "The Space Traveler and Wandering"