Reading the Sphere: The Landscape of Contemporary American Poetry

by Richard Silberg

Richard Silberg, a longtime editor of Poetry Flash, analyzes the various styles of in-vogue poetry, from New Critical poets like Anthony Hecht and Language poets like Richard Silliman, to academic poets such as Anne Carson and barbarian poets who perform in interactive poetry slams. Each essay involves the reader in the critical process of understanding the language and themes of the poet under discussion.

204 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2001

About the author

Richard Silberg is a poet, critic, translator, and Associate Editor of Poetry Flash. His poetry book, Deconstruction of the Blues, received the 2006 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and was nominated for the Northern California Book Award. He is the author of Reading the Sphere: A Geography of Contemporary American Poetry, as well as essays and several translations, among them The Three Way Tavern, by South Korean poet Ko Un, which won the 2007 Northern California Book Award. This Side of Time, poems by Ko Un co-translated by Clare You and Richard Silberg, is forthcoming from White Pine Press. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Denver Quarterly, Volt, Parthenon West Review, ZYZZYVA, Eleven Eleven, and New American Writing, among many other journals. He lives in Berkeley, California.