A Fish to Feed All Hunger

by Sandra Alcosser

Poetry. Newly typeset and redesigned, award-winning author Sandra Alcosser's book appears in a brand new edition with its original introduction by James Tate. "By turns tender, dark, sensuous, Sandra Alcosser's care for language is never far from center-stage. The diction is rich and appropriate. Themes and subthemes tangle in the subconscious. They are not simple, but neither are they obscure. A FISH TO FEED ALL HUNGER challenges and rewards those still in the habit of reading. Each moment seems to have its just emphasis. In our daily lives, we are performing a series of rites for one another. And Alcosser's sense of ritual is keen. She gives meaning when it is most needed"—James Tate.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1986

Reviews

[Camille Dungy]

Sometimes I have to cull my bookshelves because I love books so much that things start to get dire in our house if I don’t make room. But this is a book that won’t get culled no matter how tall my poems pile grows. My grandmother was a librarian, so even my overflow piles of unshelved books tend to be organized first by genre, then alphabetically by author’s last name. This way, I can find books when I need them. Alcosser’s A Fish to Feed All Hunger (University of Virginia Press, 1986; Ahsahta Press, 1993) is a book I find myself needing at least a few times each year. “[Alcosser] gives meaning when it is most needed,” James Tate wrote in his introduction to the collection. These poems are often spare, always sensual, compellingly taut and strong, and full of so much life. They are grounded in the lived and living world, and they continue to teach me new ways to see and to survive.

Review published originally with Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/2021/07/thi...

[Mills College Library]

811.54 A3549f 1986