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Book Title

American Sublime

Author 1
Elizabeth Alexander
Body
Too many people have seen too much
and lived to tell, or not tell, or tell
with their silent, patterned bodies,
their glass eyes, gone legs, flower-printed flesh. . .
—from "Notes From"

In her fourth remarkable collection, Elizabeth Alexander voices the outcries, dreams, and histories of an African American tradition that goes back to the slave rebellion on the Amistad and to the artists’ canvases of nineteenth century America. In persona poems, historical narratives, jazz riffs, sonnets, elegies, and a sequence of ars poetica, American Sublime is Alexander’s most vivid and varied collection and affirms her place as one of America’s most lively and gifted writers.

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List Price
$16.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-55597-432-9
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
96
Trim Size
Trim Size
6 x 9
Keynote
A brilliant new collection by Elizabeth Alexander, whose “poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh”—Rita Dove, The Washington Post

About the Author

Elizabeth  Alexander
Credit: CJ Gunther
Elizabeth Alexander is the author of five previous books of poetry including American Sublime, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize. She is also the author of a memoir, The Light of the World, and two books of essays, including The Black Interior. On January 20, 2009, she delivered her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. She has received the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry, the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship, and the Jackson Poetry Prize. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, the director of creativity and free expression at the Ford Foundation, and the Wun Tsun Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.

http://www.elizabethalexander.net
 
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Praise

  • "[American Sublime] makes. . . . restrained promises and delivers lucidly."—Publishers Weekly
  • "[American Sublime] is as much a description of the book's intentions as it is of the quality of the work."—Black Issues Book Review
  • "American Sublime is Alexander's most vivid and varied collection. It affirms her place as one of Anerica's most lively and gifted writers."—Backlist
  • "American Sublime establishes [Alexander's] place as one of America's most gifted writers."—Sanford Herald
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