August Kleinzahler est un poète dont les œuvres se caractérisent par une observation attentive de la vie quotidienne et de ses significations cachées. Sa poésie saisit souvent les ambiances et les images du paysage américain avec une précision et une musicalité nouvelles. Le style de Kleinzahler est direct mais rempli de métaphores évocatrices qui entraînent le lecteur dans sa perspective unique sur le monde. Ses poèmes explorent des thèmes tels que la fugacité du temps, la connexion humaine et la beauté trouvée dans les moments ordinaires.
The collection showcases the formative works of a renowned American poet, highlighting the evolution of their voice and themes. It captures a range of emotions and experiences, reflecting on nature, identity, and the human condition. These early poems provide insight into the poet's unique style and the influences that shaped their later masterpieces, making it an essential read for fans of American poetry and literature.
1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.In this powerful and inventive collection, August Kleinzahler succeeds in creating a new idiom for American lyric poetry that captures the velocity and swerves of contemporary life in the city. He pushes the language very hard to get there, and the results are breathtaking: an angular, propulsive poetry that transforms character, voice, and setting into buzzing, luminous events.
Cutty, One Rock takes the reader on a wild journey by airplane, bus, ferry, and foot from childhood to early manhood in the company of a New Jersey family in equal measures cultivated and deranged. We witness scenes of passionate, even violent intensity that give rise to meditations on eros and literature, the solitariness of travel, and the poetics of place.These individual pieces, most of which first appeared in The London Review of Books and won an international cult following, are by turns "poignant, surreal, down home and lyrical, a mixture of qualities that inheres in his language with uncommon delicacy and effect" (Leonard Michaels). Together they make up an intellectual and emotional autobiography on the run. The book's final section, about Kleinzahler's adored, doomed older brother, is unforgettable, and since its appearance last year in the LRB , has already entered the literature as one of the most moving contemporary memoirs.
The collection showcases a comprehensive selection of August Kleinzahler's poetry, featuring both established works and a significant number of new pieces. His innovative use of voice, form, and length highlights his reputation as a leading contemporary poet. Themes of travel, both real and imagined, permeate the collection, with the poet reflecting on profound connections to place, including a poignant exploration of America's heartland.
August Kleinzahler has earned admiration for his musical, precise poems that are grounded in the people, places and language among which he has lived.
Featuring jazzy and edgy verses, the collection showcases the author's talent for crafting vivid and engaging poetry. With a keen awareness and focus, the poems reflect a mastery of ordinary dialogue, enhanced by unique rhythms that captivate the reader. Critics highlight the work's experimental nature, combining exceptional wit with a sense of control. The collection promises a refreshing and adventurous exploration of language and sound, making it a standout contribution to contemporary American poetry.
Exploring diverse locales like Las Vegas, Mayfair, and contemporary Berlin, the poems showcase a vibrant and rhythmic style while delving into new emotional depths. The collection features unexpected encounters between iconic figures, blending high culture with pop culture in imaginative tableaux. This work represents a significant evolution in Kleinzahler's voice, marking it as his strongest collection yet, as he navigates a wide range of themes and registers with ease.
Selected New Jersey Poems / Selected San Francisco Poems
The collection showcases August Kleinzahler's finest poetry, reflecting his experiences and influences from both New Jersey and San Francisco. It captures the essence of his life and the distinct environments that shaped his work, offering readers a glimpse into his unique voice and perspective. Through vivid imagery and thoughtful themes, the poems explore the interplay between place and identity, making for a compelling read that highlights the author's journey through two contrasting locales.
The collection features a range of incisive essays spanning sixteen years, showcasing the author's profound insights and reflections. Blending poetry with memoir, the work delves into personal experiences and broader themes, offering readers a unique perspective on life, art, and the human condition. Each essay captures the author's distinctive voice and thought-provoking observations, making it a compelling read for those interested in the intersections of literature and personal narrative.
When August Kleinzahler won the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize for his collection The Strange Hours Travelers Keep, the judges' citation referred to his work as 'ferociously on the move, between locations, between forms, between registers'. They might also have added 'between New Jersey and San Francisco', the places Kleinzahler has spent his life travelling between, both on the road and on the page. This collection assembles the best of his New Jersey and San Francisco poems for the first time, organised according to place. Providing readers with a gorgeous guide to Kleinzahler's interior geography, Before Dawn on Bluff Road (New Jersey) and Hollyhocks in the Fog (San Francisco) function as both word-maps and word-anatomies of one of our greatest poet's lifelong passions and preoccupations.