Cavankerry Press, 2001
Book of the Year, Bronze Award, 2004
Independent Publisher Book Awards, Finalist—Anthology, 2005
Edited by Annie Finch, Johanna Keller, and Candace McClelland
A major collection of poets pays tribute in criticism and poems to one of the great poets of the twentieth century.
Witty, unabashedly feminist, and brilliantly talented, Carolyn Kizer became a student of Roethke’s as a young divorced single mother. She went on to become a founding editor of Poetry Northwest, the first director of literary programs for the NEA, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of eight books of brilliant poetry. With Maxine Kumin, she made national headlines by resigning from the Academy of American Poets to protest the lack of cultural and gender diversity among the Academy’s Chancellors.
Critical essays about the poet and her work, interviews with Kizer, and poems written in her honor. acknowledge Kizer’s gifts: her humor, her mythological scope, political awareness, satirical wit, feminism, craft, lyricism, her role in shaping literary institutions and her charisma. The book is a unique celebration of the enduring work that places Kizer in the pantheon of American poets.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction / Maxine Kumin
Essays, Articles and Reviews
Passwords at the Boundary: Carolyn Kizer’s Poetry /Henry Taylor
Postscript: Carolyn Kizer, Superkid /Carol Muske
The Impact of Character on Character /Alfred Corn
“Semele Recycled”: A Sacred Tale of Regeneration /Terry Ehret
“In Hell with Virg and Dan,” Review of Harping On by Carolyn Kizer /Jack Foley
Kizer’s Politics: Poetry and Feminism /Ruth Salvaggio
Kizer’s Commandments: Dicta for Student Writers /Margaret Rabb and Jackson Wheeler
Larger Than Life: Mythology and Carolyn Kizer /Robert Phillips
Carolyn Kizer and the Chain of Women /Annie Finch
A Swift Education /Fred Chappell
Re/Membering the Goddess: Carolyn Kizer and the Poetics of Generosity /Judith Johnson
The House of Madame K. /Kim Vaeth
Carolyn Kizer and Her Chinese Imitations /Dominic Cheung
Afterword /Hayden Carruth
Poems for Carolyn
Inviting Carolyn Kizer /Marie Ponsot
Bub and Sis /Robert Creeley
On Some Qualities in Her Self and Poetry /Kelly Cherry
Sisters /Lucille Clifton
Because You Are Always There /Terry Stokes
Drifting in Montana /C. L. Rawlins
Haiku /Carol Muske
I Dream It is Afternoon When I Return to Delhi /Agha Shahid Ali
A Carol for Carolyn /Annie Finch
Pantoum, with Swan /Maxine Kumin
Interviews
Intensity and Effect: An Interview with Carolyn Kizer (1997) /Michelle Boisseau
An Interview with Carolyn Kizer (1967) /William Holland
Carolyn Kizer: The Art of Poetry (2000) /Barbara Thompson.
Review Carolyn Kizer: Perspectives on Amazon