Manthology: Poems on the Male Experience

by Craig Crist-Evans (Editor), Craig Crist-Evans (Editor), Roger Weingarten (Editor)

Why focus an anthology of poems on the male experience when, for centuries, men have pretty much dominated everything from politics to the literary canon? Hasn't everything that can be said about the male experience already been said? This collection proves that the answer is a resounding no.Each of the anthology's ninety-three poems spotlights an individual experience that nonetheless becomes universal. Together poems from ninety-three poets---twenty-six of them female---take on self-doubt, fatherhood, sex, death, relationships, work, war, peace, and a diversity of other topics to form a perceptive and insightful collection. “The idea isn't so much that the poems celebrate men as that they challenge the reader to discover for him or herself what is male about the poem,” says Billy Collins about the collection. Humorous, sad, celebratory, and thoughtful, Manthology gathers a surprising group of poems focused on the almost poignant intensity of the male experience, with its attendant urgencies, confusions, and hilarities.Contributors includeMarvin Bell, Robert Bly, Christopher Buckley, David Clewell, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, Stuart Dybek, Lynn Emanuel, Dana Gioia, Ray González, Tony Hoagland, David Lehman, Philip Levine, Bret Lott, Campbell McGrath, Naomi Shihab Nye, Maureen Seaton, Betsy Sholl, David St. John, Charles Harper Webb, David Wojahn, and many more

Genres: Poetry

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

"Every step forward, every word, is an act of discovery," said author Craig Crist-Evans of his approach to writing poetry. And he obviously found a winning formula, as evidenced by the International Reading Association's Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award he received for MOON OVER TENNESSEE: A BOY'S CIVIL WAR JOURNAL.

Craig Crist-Evans's mastery of poetic form is also apparent in NORTH OF EVERYTHING, a poignant novel-in-verse about a family who moves to a Vermont farm in search of a new beginning and a simpler life. Of his inspiration for this book, the author said, "NORTH OF EVERYTHING is my attempt to portray the changes one boy and his family experience--through the shifting seasons and in their own lives--that lead them to a humble acceptance of both beauty and loss in the world." This spare, lyrical novel will speak to anyone who has experienced change and loss, and who has faced the struggle--and found the spirit to carry on.


Prior to writing NORTH OF EVERYTHING, Craig Crist-Evans decided to try his hand at a new format: his first prose novel. "AMARYLLIS was an experiment," the author said. "I sat down without any idea at all of what might come. I wanted to attempt prose the same way I do poems. And so it was an act of discovery, for the story itself, and for my sense of myself as a fiction writer." The result was a haunting story of two brothers separated, yet forever connected, by the devastation of war--a partly autobiographical novel that incorporates themes from the author's younger days. "It was the fall of 1965. My family had just moved from Ohio to Florida," the author recalled. "During one of the biggest hurricanes of the century, the AMARYLLIS nosed into the east coast of Florida near West Palm Beach. For three years, its rusting hulk rose above the beach where I surfed, skipped school, and fell in love. When I started to write this story, that ship rose up again in memory and cast its shadow across those years of turmoil, fear, and change we now call the Vietnam War." Says KIRKUS REVIEWS of Craig Crist-Evans's prose "experiment" in a starred review: "With its almost painful realism, this is the finest depiction of war we've seen yet for young readers."


In addition to authoring books, poet and writer Craig Crist-Evans published poems, articles, essays, and reviews in numerous journals, and he taught English and directed the Writing Center at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Craig Crist-Evans died in 2005.