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Book Title

Pity the Beautiful

Subtitle
Poems
Author 1
Dana Gioia
Body
O Lord of indirection and ellipses,
ignore our prayers. Deliver us from distraction.
Slow our heartbeat to a cricket's call.
--from “Prophecy” Pity the Beautiful is Dana Gioia's first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won, inventive, and resilient. These new poems show Gioia's craftsmanship at its finest, its most mature, as they make music, crack wise, remember the dead, and in a long, central poem even tell ghost stories.

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List Price
$16.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-55597-613-2
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
88
Trim Size
Trim Size
5 1/2 x 9
Keynote
The long-awaited fourth collection by one of America's foremost poets

About the Author

Dana  Gioia
Credit: Star Black
Dana Gioia is an award-winning poet and critic. He has published five celebrated volumes of poetry, including 99 Poems: New & Selected, and three critical collections. For six years he served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is now the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. He is the Poet Laureate of California.

http://danagioia.com/
 
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Praise

  • “His finest [collection] to date . . . These poems in which sentiment is refined by technical prowess, and simple words combine to make music and meaning merge marvelously and memorably.”Best American Poetry
  • “[Gioia’s poems] speak of sin, prayers, prophecy, virtues, and grace. . . . Whatever their form, these poems have a musical quality. Ultimately, Gioia’s poems come alive and sing on the page.”—National Review
  • “A slim but powerful volume infused with melancholy and hope. . . . Technically accomplished, thematically relevant, lyrically beautiful, this collection is definitely top shelf.”—The Monitor
  • “Dana Gioia excels at writing poetry that is accessible to general readers. . . . [Pity the Beautiful] speaks in a relevant voice of today within the formal verse structures of the past.”—Shelf Awareness
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