Courage, Revising the Text - Softcover

Root, William Pitt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1968783067 ISBN 13: 9781968783068

Publisher: Press 53, 2026

Synopsis

In Courage, Revising the Text is William Pitt Root's sixteenth book of poems. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo said of Root, "To read [his] poems is to cup a breath in your hands. Within the breath are fervent promises of remembrance whispered from the wheel of death, marriages, birth-out of fury and love." Barry Lopez said, "[Root's] poems, as quiet and knowledgeable as boulders, are run with compassion and longing . . . they break winter's back." And Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky praised Root for a poem found in this collection saying, "'The Unbroken Diamond' is an extremely strong piece of work . . . this country needs badly. As fast as I know you are the only poet in the whole U.S. who had heart enough to address this subject (the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan). Your lines . . . surely redeem this nation."

About this title

About the Author

William Pitt Root is at home wandering the San Juan and Weminuche Wilderness with his wolf dog Mojo Buffalo Buddy. His first fifteen poetry collections reflect a life active both within and without academia teaching, first at Slippery Rock University, then as far from academia as it gets-in a factory outside of Stockton, California, as bouncer in the Sweet Chariot Bar in Seattle, in a copper mine, and in the bilge of an oil tanker. He has taught as a Poet-In-Schools to children on five Native nations as well as in public schools in southern states. For twenty years, Bill taught creative writing and Native American Literature at Hunter College in Manhattan. From 1995-2002 he served as first Poet Laureate of Tucson, Arizona. His work appears in The NYer, Atlantic, Poetry, Ploughshares and in other journals and anthologies. Recipient of fellowships from Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, NEA, Stanford University and US/UK Exchange Artists Program, Root's recent books are Strange Angels and Sublime Blue, Translations of the Odes of Pablo Neruda. He is a poetry editor at Cutthroat, a Journal of the Arts. He divides his time between Bayfield, Colorado, and Tucson, Arizona, where he lives with his wife, the better poet, Pam Uschuk.

Edition details

• Publisher: Press 53
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1968783067
• ISBN 13: 9781968783068
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 66