Synopses & Reviews
National Book Award FinalistBook of the Year honors from Publishers Weekly
"As if hurled from a pitching mound, James Richardson's aphorisms and images approach the reader like fastballs, only to curve at the last second, painting the corners of the reader's mind with wisdom and delight. In By the Numbers Richardson dips into an expansive repertoire of approaches and shows excellent command, as he illuminates the commute between the ordinary and the mystical." National Book Award finalist, Judges' Citation
[O]ne of Americas most distinctive contemporary poets
a powerful and moving body of work that in its intimacy and philosophical naturalism is unique in contemporary American poetry.” Boston Review
James Richardsons Interglacial, a poetry finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, is like a beautiful river, under the thin surface of which rushes an intensely felt life and a never quite lost yearning to belong.” NewPages
James Richardsons poetry is
unusual, quirky, personal, and profound.” The Threepenny Review
James Richardson is
a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision.” The Christian Science Monitor
James Richardson is the author of six books of poetry and two critical studies. His poems appear frequently in The New Yorker, Slate, and Paris Review. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University.
Synopsis
"One of America's most distinctive contemporary poets."Boston Review
"James Richardson's poetry is . . . unusual, quirky, personal, and profound."The Threepenny Review
For James Richardson, poetry is serious and speculative play for both intellect and imagination. By the Numbers is striking for its range of line and movement, for its microlyrics, crypto-quatrains, "ten-second essays," and the twist and snap of aphorisms. Drawing from myriad fablesOvidian, Shakespearean, georgic, and scientificRichardson makes familiar scenes strange enough to provoke new and startling insights.
"Ten-second Essay #138"
Faces are motion, which is why all the photos of you are bad. Even the most natural-looking portrait is a sentence interrupted, one note of an aria, held. Though faces themselves hide a deeper motion. You seem to sit there and meet my eyes across the table, but you are so many other places, clinging here for a moment against all the currents that will soon sweep you onward. We are so moved by the faces caught in the windows of trains going the other way because they tell us how all faces really are.
James Richardson is the author of six books of poetry and two critical studies. His poems appear frequently in The New Yorker, Slate, and Paris Review. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University.
Synopsis
Poetry. For James Richardson, poetry is serious and speculative play for both intellect and imagination. By the Numbers is striking for its range of line and movement, for its microlyrics, crypto-quatrains, "ten-second essays," and the twist and snap of aphorisms. Drawing from myriad fables—Ovidian, Shakespearean, georgic, and scientific—Richardson makes familiar scenes strange enough to provoke new and startling insights.
Synopsis
James Richardson is . . . a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision.”The Christian Science Monitor
About the Author
James Richardson is the author of the best-selling VECTORS: APHORISMS and TEN-SECOND ESSAYS (Ausable Press, 2001). His poetry includes Reservations, Second Guesses, As If, which was chosen by Amy Clampitt for the National Poetry Series, A Suite for Lucretians, How Things Are, INTERGLACIAL: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS and APHORISMS (Ausable Press, 2004), and BY THE NUMBERS (Copper Canyon Press, 2010). He is the author of two critical studies, Thomas Hardy: The Poetry of Necessity, and Vanishing Lives: Tennyson, Rossetti, Swinburne, and Yeats. The recipient of the Cecil Hemley and Robert H. Winner Prizes from the Poetry Society of America and fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Princeton University.