Lost River: A Chapbook

by James Tate

"Tate’s originality was confirmed almost thirty years ago . . . testifying to the broad appeal of his wonderfully eccentric and generous poetry."—John Ashbery

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

James Vincent Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He taught creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he worked since 1971. He was a member of the poetry faculty at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers, along with Dara Wier and Peter Gizzi.

Dudley Fitts selected Tate's first book of poems, The Lost Pilot (1967) for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while Tate was still a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; Fitts praised Tate's writing for its "natural grace." Despite the early praise he received Tate alienated some of his fans in the seventies with a series of poetry collections that grew more and more strange.

He published two books of prose, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee (2001) and The Route as Briefed (1999). His awards include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, a Pulitzer Prize in poetry, a National Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Tate's writing style is difficult to describe, but has been identified with the postmodernist and neo-surrealist movements. He has been known to play with phrases culled from news items, history, anecdotes, or common speech; later cutting, pasting, and assembling such divergent material into tightly woven compositions that reveal bizarre and surreal insights into the absurdity of human nature.

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how to explain Tate. I want to say something about him, but have no clue how to say it. He's eccentric, but not eccentric. His writing is so creative. I enjoyed this little book. I'm always on the go and this short book fulfilled my reading needs.

[Tayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

More lucid dreaming down the backroads of America with James Tate behind the wheel. This is a beautiful little chapbook of prose poems of the everyday surreal with a cover that looks like a giant postage stamp. I like to think of James Tate as the little brother (or twin brother?) of Charles Simic who, incidentally, provides the accolade on the back.

[erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’ve read “it happens like this” like a dozen times and it still rules

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for class, and I had no idea what to expect. Tate's poems are humorous and I love the conversational style of them.

My favorite poems were Making the Best of the Holidays and Being Present at More Than One Place at a Time.