Book description
Since issuing its first volumes in 1959, the Wesleyan poetry program
has challenged the reigning aesthetic of the time and profoundly
influenced the development of American poetry. One of the country's
oldest programs, its greatest achievement has been the publication of
early works by yet undiscovered poetry who have since become major
awarded Pulitzer and Bollingen prizes, National Book Awards, and many
other honors. At a time when other programs are being phased out,
Wesleyan takes this opportunity to celebrate its distinguished history
and reaffirm its commitment to poetry with publication of The Wesleyan Tradition.
Drawing from some 250 volumes, editor Michael Collier documents the
wide-ranging impact of these works. In his introduction, he describes
the literary and cultural context of American poetics in more recent
decades, tracing the evolution of the Deep Image and Confessional
movements of the 50s and 60s, and exploring the emergence of the
"prose lyric" style. Although the success of the Wesleyan
program has inspired its share of imitators, no other program has had
such a fundamental impact. Works by the eighty-six poets included her
both document and celebrate that contribution.
"A valuable collection that celebrates the unceasing vitality
and fluidity of American poetry"--Booklist MICHAEL COLLIER has
won several awards and fellowships for his poetry, a
"Discovery" / The Nation award (1981), the 1988 Alice Fay Di
Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a Thomas J. Watson
fellowship, a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown,
and an NEA creative writing fellowship. A graduate of Connecticut
College (B. A. 1976) and the University of Arizona (M. F.A. 1979),
Collier has traveled widely--from London to northern Africa to Siberia
and Japan--and worked at various times as a house painter and a
community activist. He is an assistant professor of English and
associate director of creative writing at the University of Maryland and
a visiting assistant professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins
University. He was director of the summer writers' conference at Johns
Hopkins in 1987 and coordinator of poetry programs at the Folger
Shakespeare Library in 1983-84. His first book, The Clasp and Other
Poems, was published by Wesleyan in 1986.
