Star Ledger

by Lynda Hull

In this dark but finally redemptive group of poems, the tawdry and the exquisite must Star Ledger may evoke images of the celestial, but it is also the name of the Newark morning newspaper. Such ironies continually inform Hull’s poetry, which is tough and uncompromising but richly veined with a musicality and a lyrical texture that recall earlier epics of the American city such as The Bridge and Paterson.

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Lynda Hull was an American poet. She had published two collections of poetry when she died in a car accident in 1994. A third, The Only World (Harper Perennial, 1995), was published posthumously by her husband, the poet David Wojahn, and was a finalist for the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award. Collected Poems By Lynda Hull (Graywolf Press), was published in 2006.

Hull was the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, and received four Pushcart Prizes. Her poems were published widely in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, AGNI, Colorado Review, The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry.

Hull was born and grew up in Newark, New Jersey. At the age of 16 she won a scholarship to Princeton University, but ran away from home. During the next ten years she struggled with heroin addiction on and off and lived in many places including various Chinatowns following a marriage to an immigrant from Shanghai.[7][8] In the early 1980s Hull started studying at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and earned her B.A., and then her M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. She also reconnected with her family during this time and met the poet David Wojahn, whom she married in 1984.

She taught English at Indiana University, De Paul University, and in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She served as a poetry editor for the literary journal Crazyhorse (magazine), which offers an annual award in her honor, the Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize.

Reviews

[Tryn Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally read a this poetry classic. There is arguably no one with better poetic rhythm than Lynda Hull. Her maximalism is so finely tuned it feels other-worldly. Emotional curiosity and thematic depth galore—the hype is reallllll.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely wonderful and stirring collection of poetry. I love Hull's rhythm, immersive description, and richness of emotion and heartbreak without the coloring of sentimentality. Highly recommended.

[ジェシカ · Rating 3 out of 5]

this makes me realize how fun it is to read poetry with silence and no distractions, because it's fun to imagine the settings, characters, emotions.

[Prince Jhonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divine maximalism

[ro runkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty great. fav was shore leave. read this in a collapsible lawn chair

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second time around reading Star Ledger. I let her musical lines read themselves to me. Check out: Aubade and Midnight Reports. Some of my favorite poems of her's. No one's describes a city better than Lynda Hull.

[Aviya Kushner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection, Hull becomes an even stronger and more haunting poet. I love the poem "Frugal Repasts," and I love how in Spain, she hungers for American English.