The Hide-and-Seek Muse: Annotations of Contemporary Poetry

by Lisa Russ Spaar (Editor)

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. Introduction by Nick Flynn. From 2010 to 2012, Guggenheim Fellow and award-winning poet Lisa Russ Spaar was the poetry editor for the Chronicle of Higher Education's Arts & Academe and Brainstorm blogs, where every Monday she regaled an ever-growing audience with a brief commentary on a poem of her choosing. This book collects the best of these memorable micro-essays, demonstrating how a well-wrought poem speaks to our rich cultural and spiritual life. As the title essay reveals, Spaar's own father believed that "poetry was out to trick him" and in this collection, encompassing a range of crucial poets from the formal to the experimental, Spaar gently and lovingly debunks that notion, showing us the vital place that contemporary poetry can have in the life of the mind. This is an enthralling book for poets and non-poets alike.

"For people who are a bit wary of poetry, this is the perfect antidote: the poems are amazing, and so are Lisa Russ Spaar's short essays. There s a sense of clarity about everything here (not that things aren't complex; not that Lisa's analyses aren't fascinating constructs themselves, insightful and inspiring, though not intimidating.) I'd think anyone who cares about an inner reality that might be somehow communicated nailed; set free; amplified; questioned would embrace the chance to read poems that elucidate so much about the mind and the heart, and to understand better the urges embodied in the process of constructing a poem, which always speaks from its structure of restraint. I loved every minute of reading this book." Ann Beattie

"Lisa Russ Spaar has an intense and generous spirit. She loves poetry and honors the people who read and write it. Reading her you remember once again that there's no such thing as a bad poem or a bad reader. Time will tell which ones are better and best. This book follows many roads, some less traveled than others and Lisa has a wonderful eye for the wildflowers elsewhere." Jerome McGann

Contributors are Kazim Ali, Debra Allbery, Talvikki Ansel, Jennifer Atkinson, David Baker, Jill Bialosky, Suzanne Buffam, Jennifer Chang, Ye Chun, Michael Collier, Randall Couch, Stephen Cushman, Kate Daniels, Kyle Dargan, Claudia Emerson, Monica Ferrell, David Francis, Gabriel Fried, Alice Fulton, Rachel Hadas, Brenda Hillman, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Mark Jarman, Laura Kasischke, Jennifer Key, L. S. Klatt, Joanna Klink, Hank Lazer, Paul Legault, Willie Lin, Maurice Manning, Cate Marvin, Heather McHugh, Erika Meitner, Carol Muske-Dukes, Amy Newman, Meghan O'Rourke, Eric Pankey, Kiki Petrosino, Carl Phillips, John Poch, Bin Ramke, Srikanth Reddy, Michael Rutherglen, Mary Ann Samyn, Philip Schultz, Sarah Schweig, Allison Seay, Ravi Shankar, Ron Slate, R. T. Smith, Larissa Szporluk, Mary Szybist, Brian Teare, William Thompson, David Wojahn, and Charles Wright."

Genres: Poetry

290 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

Lisa Russ Spaar is the author of many collections of poetry, including Glass Town (Red Hen Press, 1999), Blue Venus (Persea, 2004), Satin Cash (Persea, 2008), Vanitas, Rough (Persea, 2012), and Orexia (Persea, 2017). She is the editor of Monticello in Mind: Fifty Contemporary Poems on Jefferson, Acquainted with the Night: Insomnia Poems, and All that Mighty Heart: London Poems. A collection of her essays, The Hide-and-Seek Muse: Annotations of Contemporary Poetry, was published by Drunken Boat Media in 2013. Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Award, the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, an All University Teaching Award, an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the Library of Virginia Award for Poetry, and the 2013-2014 Faculty Award of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. Her poems have appeared in the Best American Poetry series, Poetry, Boston Review, Blackbird, IMAGE, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Slate, Shenandoah, The Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many other journals and quarterlies, and her commentaries and columns about poetry appear regularly or are forthcoming in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She was short-listed for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Excellence in Reviewing, and has taught at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Seattle Pacific University, and the Vermont Studio Center. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. --Poetry Foundation

Reviews

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Hide-And-Seek Muse, Lisa Russ Spaar takes on a role of a curator of some of the most seminal works of poetry, finding the ‘perfect’ ones for each section and including annotations of these works. As the poetry editor for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Arts & Academe and Brainstorm blogs, Spaar found herself writing a weekly feature which included a new poem by a contemporary American poet, and a commentary of that specific poem. Slowly, and with some encouragement, the weekly blog feature was transformed into this book, where the author explores the craft of poetry, its past, and its future.

This book is not simply a collection of poems followed by commentary. Nor is it a dissection of the particular poem’s meaning, or the poet’s intent. In this work, Lisa Russ Spaar poses interesting and important questions about the craft, beginning with what is poetry, what will the future of poetry look like and how to poets adapt to new technologies, as well as how the answers to these questions shape poetry, its content and meaning.