Dark Orchard

by William Wright

Winner of the 2005 Texas Review Breakthrough Poetry Prize

"In a world that is nearly awash in first books, William Wright's Dark Orchard stands out for its lyrical obsession with the heritage a son may have from parents and from the deeply felt landscape of childhood. . . . The language is filled with a kind of desolation and a beauty that is not quite despair, something that is better known, one suspects, by the young than by the rest of us. We should be grateful for this chance to rediscover its reach." Phebe Davidson

"William Wright's poems welcome us into a rich and enchanting universe. Planted in the fecund soil of his native South Carolina, this book's vision is simultaneously delicate and dangerous, touching and alarming. Woven throughout with the subtle undertones of his poetic forebears (one sees Theodore Roethke, Robert Penn Warren, and James Wright dancing in the shadows), Dark Orchard is an impressive debut volume with a depth of insight that belies the author's youth, a collection that leaves me thirsting for the next book." Stephen Gardner

Author Biography: Born in 1979, WILLIAM WRIGHT was raised in the ridge-country of Edgefield, South Carolina. His work has appeared in many journals, including Poet Lore, Cimarron Review, Texas Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Red Owl, Phoebe, StorySouth: The Best from New South Writers, and Yemassee. Wright teaches and tutors writing and literature at Sam Houston State University and Montgomery College.

72 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

William Wright is author of seven collections of poetry: four full-length books, including Tree Heresies (Mercer University Press, forthcoming), Night Field Anecdote (Louisiana Literature Press, 2011), Bledsoe (Texas Review Press, 2011), and Dark Orchard (Texas Review Press, 2006, winner of the Breakthrough Poetry Prize). Wright’s chapbooks are Sleep Paralysis (Stepping Stones Press, 2012, Winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, selected by Kwame Dawes), Xylem & Heartwood (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and The Ghost Narratives (Finishing Line Press, 2008). Recent work can be found in The Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, Southern Poetry Review, Oxford American, Shenandoah, and many others. Wright is Series Editor and Volume Co-editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, a multivolume series celebrating contemporary writing of the American South, published by Texas Review Press. Additionally Wright serves as a contributing editor for Shenandoah, translates German poetry, and is editing three volumes, including Grit Po: Rough South Poetry (with Daniel Cross Turner). Wright won the 2012 Porter Fleming Prize in Literature.

Reviews

[Sandy Duteau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Near and dear to me heart. Love this book.