Even Tide

by Larry Woiwode

First printing in wrappers, issued simultaneously with hardcover. The author's third book, and first collection of poems.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1977

About the author

Larry Woiwode was designated Poet Laureate of North Dakota by the Legislative Assembly in 1995. He served as Writer in Residence at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1973-74; and from 1983-88 was a tenured professor at the State University of New York, Binghamton, and director of its Creative Writing Program.

Larry Woiwode’s fiction has appeared in Antaeus, Antioch Review, Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Harpers, The New Yorker, Paris Review, Partisan Review, and many other publications; his poetry has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Poetry North, Tar River Poetry, Transatlantic Review, Works in Progress, and other publications and venues, including broadsides and anthologies.

His novels and his memoirs are widely acclaimed and his writings have been translated into a dozen languages and earned him international recognition: he is the recipient of the William Faulkner Foundation Award, 1969; has been a Guggenheim Fellow, 1971-72; a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award, 1975; chosen by the American Association of Publishers for a novel to present to the White House Library, 1976; is recipient of an Award in Literature from the National Institute and American Academy of Arts & Letters, 1980; of the John Dos Passos Prize (for a diverse body of work), 1991; and of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, 2001. He has also received North Dakota’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award, conferred by Governor Sinner, in 1992; and in 2011 received the Emeritus Award from the High Plains Awards Committee, for “A Body of Work as Vast as the West.” His recent publications include Words Made Fresh, and The Invention of Lefse, published in 2011 by Crossway Books. His new novel Blackburn Bay is nearly ready to be viewed by agents and publishers, and in 2010 he completed a new book of short stories

Reviews

[NY Sled · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of 49 poems, all untitled, and an introductory poem and another poem as an epilogue. The poems are very direct and visceral, when natural images are invoked they too are raw. To me, many of the poems addressed loss, it seemed to be either marital issues or the loss of a child/daughter or perhaps just the child growing up. The poems vary in length and content. I found occasional echoes of Berryman and Roethke, especially the greenhouse poems and the "where knock is open wide" sequence. One of the poems (#32) really stood out to me for the unvarnished way it addressed the narrator's drinking. #10, about the author's surname/identity, really reminded me of Roethke at his most powerful, and yet did not feel derivative. These poems are exceptionally well crafted, the language is strong and direct, yet versatile. I had never heard of this poet until recently, and he is well worth a read and consideration.