What do you think?
Rate this book
Hosts
140 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2025
About the author
Alfred Corn
63 books10 followersAlfred Corn was born in Bainbridge, Georgia, in 1943. He grew up in Valdosta, Georgia, and received his B.A. in French literature from Emory University in 1965. He was awarded an M.A. in French literature from Columbia University in 1967, his degree work including a year spent in Paris on a Fulbright Fellowship and two years of teaching in the French Department at Columbia College.
His first book of poems, All Roads at Once, appeared in 1976, followed by A Call in the Midst of the Crowd (1978), The Various Light (1980), Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), The West Door (1988), and Autobiographies (1992). His seventh book of poems, titled Present, appeared in 1997, along with the novel Part of His Story. Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, appeared in 1999, followed by Contradictions in 2002, which was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
Corn has also published a collection of critical essays titled The Metamorphoses of Metaphor (1989), The Poem’s Heartbeat (1997), and a work of art criticism, Aaron Rose Photographs (Abrams, 2001). A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, he also writes art criticism for Art in America and ARTnews magazines.
Corn has received fellowships and prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Academy of American Poets, and the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine.
He has taught at the City University of New York, Yale, Connecticut College, the University of Cincinnati, U.C.L.A., Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Tulsa.
His first book of poems, All Roads at Once, appeared in 1976, followed by A Call in the Midst of the Crowd (1978), The Various Light (1980), Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), The West Door (1988), and Autobiographies (1992). His seventh book of poems, titled Present, appeared in 1997, along with the novel Part of His Story. Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, appeared in 1999, followed by Contradictions in 2002, which was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
Corn has also published a collection of critical essays titled The Metamorphoses of Metaphor (1989), The Poem’s Heartbeat (1997), and a work of art criticism, Aaron Rose Photographs (Abrams, 2001). A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, he also writes art criticism for Art in America and ARTnews magazines.
Corn has received fellowships and prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Academy of American Poets, and the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine.
He has taught at the City University of New York, Yale, Connecticut College, the University of Cincinnati, U.C.L.A., Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Tulsa.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 23, 2026
Alfred Corn is an extremely powerful, understated writer. The 9 stories in this new collection have a laserlike focus on the lives of those who live in quiet desperation, those just above that desperation, or those mired in the worlds of relationships and drugs. At times, his unflinching prose reminded me of Algerian author Albert Camus.
The story “Kick”is about a Vietnam veteran and his girlfriend.
There’s not a touch of irreality or sickly sentimentality about the romance; one believes every word. “Mars” is about two men and their meeting. “Irish” is a story about a couple in Dublin which has an ethereal flavor which is more than effective. You could almost call it a ghost story which is very appropriate for an irish story.
These explorations of human relationships and the incremental movements they make in their developments take the reader with them and emblazone them upon the reader’s imagination. “Providence” is a telling tale.
There’s not a touch of irreality or sickly sentimentality about the romance; one believes every word. “Mars” is about two men and their meeting. “Irish” is a story about a couple in Dublin which has an ethereal flavor which is more than effective. You could almost call it a ghost story which is very appropriate for an irish story.
These explorations of human relationships and the incremental movements they make in their developments take the reader with them and emblazone them upon the reader’s imagination. “Providence” is a telling tale.
Displaying 1 of 1 review