Infanta

by Erin Belieu

Chosen for the National Poetry Series by Hayden Carruth. Erin Belieu has an uncanny knack for listening and for locating the perspective of various others within her poems. Armed with humor, anger, and sensuality, she fuses the discursive methods of fiction to a lyric impulse, resulting in a remarkable book of portraits, mostly of people caught in ungainly moments of failure and self-revelation.

Genres: Poetry

150 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Associate Professor, MFA The Ohio State University (1992), MA Boston University (1995), specializes in poetry. Her first book, Infanta, was selected by Hayden Carruth for the National Poetry Series and was named one of the ten best books of 1995 by Library Journal, Washington Post Book World, and the National Book Critics' Circle. Her second collection, One Above and One Below, won the Ohioana Award and the Society of Midland Authors Award. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Slate, Nerve, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The New York Times, and others. She previously served as managing editor of AGNI.
Belieu's third poetry collection, Black Box, was published by Copper Canyon press in early 2007 and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Poems from Black Box appeared in places such as Ploughshares, Tin House and The Virginia Quarterly Review (and are available to read in the magazines' website archives). Her poem "The Last Of The Gentlemen Heartbreakers" was featured on the Poetry Daily website. Belieu also wrote as a featured poet for The Poetry Foundation website in July 2006. The daily blog she kept for the foundation can be found at www.poetryfoundation.org.
In September 2006, Belieu embarked on the Wave Press Poetry Bus Tour. Along with poets such as Matthew Zapruder, Joshua Beckman, Eileen Myles and Arthur Sze, Belieu traveled cross country in a tour bus, stopping to read from Black Box in places such as Seattle, Spokane, Missoula, Boise, Jackson Hole and Omaha.
In August 2009, Belieu co founded (with poet Cate Marvin) the organization VIDA: Women In Literary Arts whose mission is "to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women through meaningful conversation and the exchange of ideas among existing and emerging literary communities." Since the organization's founding, VIDA has become a strong national media presence and Belieu has focused her writing on non fiction, responding to issues of gender bias in publishing in places such as Slate and The New York Times. In 2010, VIDA will be a sponsor of the AWP conference in Washington DC.
Belieu is presently at work on a non fiction memoir detailing her experiences in parenting a special needs child. New poems have appeared recently in Lit, 32 Poems and Prairie Schooner. Belieu is also the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writers Conference. The conference brings in nationally and internationally acclaimed poets and prose writers to work with participants every July on the island of Port Townsend, Washington.

Reviews

[Courtney Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something quiet (not silent) yet powerful and witnessing yet testimonial about these poems; a tender knowing and an unflinching eye that stays with me.

[S P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tick
Remind me of a similar devotion:

how the head, buried
deeply in the brush

and gully of damp flesh,
becomes platonic
in its gratefulness,

a perfect worship.
This is why one body,
fastened to the forest

of another, swells.
This wild dependence

of the host on her guest. (53)

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like parts of this: it certainly has some of that gnomic headscratching quality I sometimes like in spite of myself. And the "sexy" poems in section two are pretty great, full-blooded and tearing teeth kinds of poems. But overall, I felt that the poems just weren't quite there-- there was little memorable about them, even in the sexy poems, phrases I'd like to ponder and play with some more, forms that are interesting, etc. I'd read Belieu again, for sure. But this book feels like its on the way to being the work of an interesting and celebrated poet, but not there just yet.

[Philip Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, at some loss for review-ness. Happily so, in exchange for the experience I had in this book, again. Put simply, I am reminded of the mutable nature of all things and specifically myself. I love having Erin's books in my life.

[Jennifer Hu · Rating 4 out of 5]

"On being disregarded by the famous" is one of my favorites to memorize, to give to friends; "The Real Animal" is sexy.