AVOCATIONS

Description

Avocations collects the best of Sam Hamill's prose on poetry over the last 18 years, presenting insightful readings of Kenneth Rexroth, Denise Levertov, Odysseas Elytis, Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa, John Logan and many others together with critical commentary on poetry in translation and the practice of poetry in general.

Sam Hamill is an esteemed poet, translator, essayist and editor. He was Editor of Copper Canyon Press from 1972-2004. Hamill has taught at prisons for fourteen years, in artist-in-residency programs for twenty years, and has worked extensively with battered women and children. He is the author of more than forty volumes of poetry, poetry-in-translation, and essays including, Almost Paradise: Selected Poems & Translations (2005), Dumb Luck (2002), Gratitude (1998), and A Poet's Work (1998). He also founded Poets Against War in 2003.

"Who can match him for range, passion, and scholarship? What aspect of poetry from Zen aesthetics to political engagement hasn't he pondered in a prose both lucid and serious? Fusing conscience and consciousness, Sam Hamill is our indispensable poet-critic and what he has to say is of utmost importance to all who care about poetry." - Gregory Orr