American Ghost Roses (Illinois Poetry Series) - Softcover

Stein, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252072405 ISBN 13: 9780252072406

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2005

Synopsis

In his first book as the poet laureate of Illinois, Kevin Stein shoulders an array of poetic forms, blending pathos, humor, and social commentary. These poems--ranging from meditative narratives to improvisational lyrics--explore art's capacity to embody as well as express contemporary culture. Stein embraces subjects as various as his father's death, magazine sex surveys, Kandinsky's theory of art, the dangling modifier, Jimi Hendrix's flaming guitar, racial bigotry, and a teacher's comments on a botched poem. Presiding over this miscellany are ghosts of a peculiarly American garden of dreamers and beloved misfits, those redeemed and those left fingering the locked gate.

About this title

About the Author

Kevein Stein is Illinois Poet Laureate and the Caterpillar Professor of English at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He is the author of the poetry collections A Circus of Want, Bruised Paradise, and Chance Ransom, as well as the critical studies James Wright: The Poetry of a Grown Man, and Poets, Worldly Acts: Public and Private History in Contemporary American Poetry.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252072405
• ISBN 13: 9780252072406
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 104