Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry

by Stacey Lynn Brown (Editor), Oliver de la Paz (Editor), Ivy Alvarez (Contributor)

The literary tradition of persona, of writing poems in voices or from perspectives other than the poet's own, is ancient in origin and contemporary in practice. The embodiment of different voices is a moment of true empathy, as the author moves beyond his or her own margins to fully inhabit the character, personality, and mindset of another human being. While there are a great number of poems written in persona, there are no current anthologies that collect and celebrate the diverse writers who work in this mode today. Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz have selected a superb collection of approximately two hundred persona poems. These poems embody characters from popular culture, history, the Bible, literature, mythology, and their diversity is reflective of the wide range of authors working in this genre. The anthology also contains brief explanatory notes written by the poets to help historicize and contextualize their characters and personae.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

248 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2012

Reviews

[Courtney Smith]

Excellent collection of contemporary persona poems and dramatic monologues. The introduction is also quite good regarding what the persona poem is, what it does, and why we write them.

[Michalina]

3 stars

[LISA]

A lot of really creative poems

[Izzy]

I personally loved a lot of the poems. It's a really fun anthology.

[Juliana Gray]

Like all anthologies, this one is uneven, but there's plenty of good stuff, including standout poems by Caki Wilkinson, Dan Albergotti, Adam Vines, Gregory Fraser, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Frank Giampietro, Cornelius Eady, Jake Adam York, Patricia Smith, John Poch, Jehanne Dubrow, Chad Davidson, Derrick Harriell, and others. I'm using this anthology in a class on persona poems this semester; I'm looking forward to the day when my students come in, eager to talk about Greg Santos's "Hulk Smash!"

[Mike Good]

Didn't quite finish, but loved nearly every poem! Especially "Hulk Smash" by Greg Santos - http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad....