National Book Award finalist James Richardson’s new collection—his eighth—is his darkest, brightest, and most moving. From its breathtaking invocation to its final whispered address, During is somber, witty, curious, and exhilarated. An extended meditation on the durability of happiness and beauty, During includes more of Richardson’s profound aphorisms alongside lyric poems that wonder at this unfailingly surprising world.

ISBN: 9781556594335

Format: Paperback

Indispensable

The world
is very small.
Inhale,
and the birds fall.

About the Author

James Richardson’s recent collections include During (Copper Canyon, 2016), which received the the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award as the best book in progress; By the Numbers: Poems and Aphorisms (Copper Canyon, 2010), a Publishers Weekly “Best Book of 2010” and a finalist for the National Book Award; Interglacial: New and Selected Poems and Aphorisms (Copper Canyon, 2004), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (Copper Canyon, 2001). …

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Reviews

“For James Richardson, poetry is serious and speculative play for both intellect and imagination… [He] makes familiar scenes strange enough to provoke new and startling insights.” —Judges’ citation, National Book Award, 2010

“James Richardson is… a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision.” —Christian Science Monitor

“[O]ne of America’s 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 Richardson’s poetry is… unusual, quirky, personal, and profound.” —Threepenny Review