The Dance

by Christian Wiman

A new book of poetry from the celebrated poet and essayist, who has “wrestled eternity onto the page” (The New York Times).

Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer—perhaps none —do so with his urgency and eloquence. In his seventh book of poetry, The Dance, Wiman is at the height of his powers. These searching, sharp, wide-ranging poems are a testament to the staying power of a poetic voice we will be reading for years to come.

Genres: Poetry

126 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2026

About the author

Christian Wiman is an American poet and editor born in 1966 and raised in West Texas. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003 he became editor of the oldest American magazine of verse, Poetry.

Reviews

[Michelle]

Christian Wiman is, by far, my favorite living poet.
This collection was uneven for me, but it includes one of the best poems I’ve read in a long time- “Geoffrey Hill.”
And even inside the poems I didn’t love, I found lines that amazed me:
“Here we are, then, our little when”
“one strains to tell if memory fog horn is real / or if that’s simply the sound that memory makes”
“Spasmodic God / what constitutes devotion / to a vital null that will not be known?”
“The Deuteronomists of Should”
“To make of loneliness a keener means/ Of seeing”

[Luke Gorham]

Prefer the more psychologically troubled work from Wiman, but his cadence and formal chops remain top of the game, particularly in a poetry landscape collapsing under the weight of a post-BookTok free verse culture of bare literacy. Speaking as one, every atheist would do well engage with Wiman. No one writes more complexly or compellingly or even-handedly on notions of faith, God, and the divine experience of mundanity. If only religion embraced this form post-transcendental theology rather than a child's rulebook and binaries of bigotry, the world might be a percentage point less awful.

[Ambi]

What a stunning collection of poems! Wiman is a true wordsmith. I loved the layers in his poetry, the little turns of phrases that not only are pleasing to the ear but flip the meaning of the poem on its head. I feel like I could read this collection again and again and take away something new each time. Some of my favorites from the collection: “Prelude in Gray Major”, “Pity the Man”, “Jamesian”, “The Dance”, “Holding an Earthworm at Fifty-Eight”, “The Cage”, “Out of Time”, and “Year”.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

[kw]

As a poetry lover, I must confess that, to be honest, I didn’t particularly care for the poems, Perhaps it’s because I’m someone who prefers collections of melancholic love poems; I don’t know. But I still have boundless respect for the effort that goes into writing poetry; after all, every poem carries a piece of the poet within it.

[Taube]

Pity the man who understands
the gift and gravity of what is not,
who lives to its conclusion
the doctrine of Saint Paul:
if being more means being less
God’s truest form is godlessness.

from Christian Wiman, “Pity the Man” The Dance

[Joseph]

Five-stars, but allow me to descend into gossip by asking whether the poem, Two Poets, where this otherwise Godstruck poet gets earthly catty and mocks two famous poets. A bit of detective work on my part has me guessing he is referring to Allen Ginsberg and Alice Walker. Thoughts?

[Catrina Berka]

Wiman is smart and witty in his exploration of the interior world of faith and spirituality. Perhaps a bit too heady for me, but I’d definitely try another volume of his poetry if given the opportunity.

[Marisa Januzzi]

Uneven as most poetry collections seem to be, but this one has its pleasures, and one poem about Christmas that stands next to Mark Doty's Messiah poem on the riser of greatness, in tee shirt and jeans, and lit from within like a cathedral.

[Mallory Nygard]

A few of my favorites: Deep Space in the B Minor Mass, Note in the Margin of Moby Dick, Two Poets

[Morgan Fulton]

2.5

[Prayerpilgrim]

Loved it! So many lines that resonated…and the last poem was awesome. ❤️

[kathryn (le livre en rose)]

everyone should actually go read this right now!!!!!!!!

[Ron Kastner]

The concupiscent porcupine aside, there are numerous lovely and thought-provoking poems in this poetry collection by Yale professor Christian Wiman. Search it out and find the ones that speak to you.