A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry
Those who have read Orpheus in the Bronx, Reginald Shepherd's previous collection of essays about the act of creating poetry, and those who take on the task, can immediately understand why it was a national finalist for a prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award. Shepherd was candid and disarming, practical and funny, able to mix thoughts about the Transformers with meditations on the realities of growing up poor.

This is Reginald Shepherd's final opportunity to speak his mind about the craft he loved, the art of using words to express the soul and the wit of every person's experience. Edited by Shepherd's longtime partner and intellectual confidant, Robert Philen, A Martian Muse stands as a final monument to a master in the craft, but is also a readable, important work in its own right.

"Reginald Shepherd died September 10, 2008, after a hard struggle with cancer. While he had completed the essays presented here and had selected them from his available essays to form a collection, he didn't have time to organize the presentation of the essays within the collection.

"The task of editing this collection has been a daunting challenge as I struggle to live up to the level of intellectual engagement, clarity, and coherence that Reginald always expected. While daunting, it has also been a labor of love and a compulsion for me, based on the many years I spent with him as a partner, friend, lover, intellectual companion, and sharer of common passions."
—-Robert Philen, from the Introduction

Reginald Shepherd was the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries and Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries and the author of five books of poetry. He was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and was the recipient of grants from the NEA, the Illinois Arts Council, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Florida Arts Council, and the Vogelstein Foundation, among many other awards and honors.

"1111630832"
A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry
Those who have read Orpheus in the Bronx, Reginald Shepherd's previous collection of essays about the act of creating poetry, and those who take on the task, can immediately understand why it was a national finalist for a prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award. Shepherd was candid and disarming, practical and funny, able to mix thoughts about the Transformers with meditations on the realities of growing up poor.

This is Reginald Shepherd's final opportunity to speak his mind about the craft he loved, the art of using words to express the soul and the wit of every person's experience. Edited by Shepherd's longtime partner and intellectual confidant, Robert Philen, A Martian Muse stands as a final monument to a master in the craft, but is also a readable, important work in its own right.

"Reginald Shepherd died September 10, 2008, after a hard struggle with cancer. While he had completed the essays presented here and had selected them from his available essays to form a collection, he didn't have time to organize the presentation of the essays within the collection.

"The task of editing this collection has been a daunting challenge as I struggle to live up to the level of intellectual engagement, clarity, and coherence that Reginald always expected. While daunting, it has also been a labor of love and a compulsion for me, based on the many years I spent with him as a partner, friend, lover, intellectual companion, and sharer of common passions."
—-Robert Philen, from the Introduction

Reginald Shepherd was the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries and Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries and the author of five books of poetry. He was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and was the recipient of grants from the NEA, the Illinois Arts Council, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Florida Arts Council, and the Vogelstein Foundation, among many other awards and honors.

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A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry

A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry

A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry

A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry

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Overview

Those who have read Orpheus in the Bronx, Reginald Shepherd's previous collection of essays about the act of creating poetry, and those who take on the task, can immediately understand why it was a national finalist for a prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award. Shepherd was candid and disarming, practical and funny, able to mix thoughts about the Transformers with meditations on the realities of growing up poor.

This is Reginald Shepherd's final opportunity to speak his mind about the craft he loved, the art of using words to express the soul and the wit of every person's experience. Edited by Shepherd's longtime partner and intellectual confidant, Robert Philen, A Martian Muse stands as a final monument to a master in the craft, but is also a readable, important work in its own right.

"Reginald Shepherd died September 10, 2008, after a hard struggle with cancer. While he had completed the essays presented here and had selected them from his available essays to form a collection, he didn't have time to organize the presentation of the essays within the collection.

"The task of editing this collection has been a daunting challenge as I struggle to live up to the level of intellectual engagement, clarity, and coherence that Reginald always expected. While daunting, it has also been a labor of love and a compulsion for me, based on the many years I spent with him as a partner, friend, lover, intellectual companion, and sharer of common passions."
—-Robert Philen, from the Introduction

Reginald Shepherd was the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries and Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries and the author of five books of poetry. He was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and was the recipient of grants from the NEA, the Illinois Arts Council, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Florida Arts Council, and the Vogelstein Foundation, among many other awards and honors.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780472070978
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Publication date: 03/18/2010
Series: Poets On Poetry
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Reginald Shepherd was the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries and Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries and the author of five books of poetry. He was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and was the recipient of grants from the NEA, the Illinois Arts Council, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Florida Arts Council, and the Vogelstein Foundation, among many other awards and honors.

Table of Contents

Introduction Robert Philen 1

Poetics and Poetry

What We Talk About When We Talk About Poetry 11

How Do You Mean That? Some Thoughts on Meaning in Poems 20

Picture This: On the Concept of Poetic Imagery 26

On Difficulty in Poetry 33

Scattered Thoughts on Fracture 46

Defining “Post-Avant-Garde” Poetry 50

“Only in the Light of Lost Words Can We Imagine Our Rewards&rquo;: On John Ashbery's Some Trees 63

Brief Notes on Celan, Difficulty, and Meaning 71

Art and Society

A Few Words on Wilfred Owen 77

Adorno, Celan, and the Possibility of Poetry 81

Caliban to the Audience: The Tempest as Colonialist and Anti-Colonialist Text 86

Saving the Appearances 95

What Is Progressive Art? 103

Artistic Production

Marx, Labor, and the Artist 117

Some Issues in the Teaching of Creative Writing 122

Intention, Aspiration, Inspiration

On the Intentional Fallacy 139

Some Thoughts on the Long Poem 146

In a Major Key 163

Taking Dictation from a Martian Muse 167

Illness, Identity, and Poetry

Illness and Poetry: A Few Reflections 173

Who Can I Be Now? 179

Long Hard Road Out of Hell 182

?Tiene Dolor? 187

Heaven Is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens: On Tim Dlugos's “Tutandot” 190

What's in a Name 193

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