Synopses & Reviews
Cultural Writing. Literary Criticism. Includes essays on Carolyn Forche, Louise Gluck, Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, C.K. Williams, Gail Mazur, Robert Lowell, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Bharati Mukherjee, Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, Susan Sontag and more. "Robert Boyers is a highly individual critic, usefully eclectic in his approaches...I find him most stimulating and original, and...challenging to my own assumptions"--Harold Bloom. "...One of the few critics writing today who, by keeping his head about the claims of this or that modern poet or novelist, keeps our interest in them alive. Shrewd and sensible in his judgments, he can be very funny as well, not at the expense of the author under discussion, but to reveal something about the writer's predicament, and our own"-John Bayley.
Synopsis
Miniature critical essays on contemporary poets and fiction writers. Originally written as introductions to public readings, these essays are unabashedly celebratory, a welcome relief from the usual critical fare. As a critic, Boyers has been praised by such literary giants as Harold Bloom and John Bayley.
Synopsis
In clear, interesting, lively prose, Boyers offers superb models for the very short critical essay.
About the Author
Robert Boyers is Editor of the quarterly Salmagundi, Tisch Professor of Arts and Letters at Skidmore College, and Director of the New York State Writers' Institute. He writes regularly on contemporary arts and culture for The New Republic, and his essays on politics and culture are widely published. He lives in Saratoga Springs, NY.