The Open Door

One Hundred Poems, One Hundred Years of "Poetry" Magazine

Don Share editor Christian Wiman editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:27th Aug '13

Should be back in stock very soon

The Open Door cover

To celebrate the centennial of Poetry, editors Don Share and Christian Wiman combed the magazine's vast archives to create a new kind of anthology, energized by a self-imposed limitation to one hundred poems. Rather than attempting to be exhaustive or definitive - or even to offer the most familiar works - they have assembled a collection of poems that, in their juxtapositions, echo across a century of poetry. The result is an anthology like no other, a celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention, a vital monument to an institution that refuses to be static, and most of all, a book that lovers of poetry will devour, debate, and keep close at hand.

"A high-wire anthology of electric resonance.... The editors arranged poems by poets of the pantheon and poets overlooked, underrated, or new in pairings and sequences of thrilling contrapuntal dynamics. Christian Wiman's opening essay is titled 'Mastery and Mystery,' and those are, indeed, the forces at work here, inducing readers to marvel anew at the strange impulse to write poetry and the profound effort required to do it well." (Booklist) "With this collection, Share and Wiman want only to promote the art of poetry, something they do exceedingly well. Highly recommended." (Library Journal, starred review) "A wonderful anthology.... In many ways this is a wonderfully democratic anthology-to get in, you don't have to be famous, you just need to be good." (National Post) "If readers would like to sample the genius and diversity of American poetry in the last century, there's no better place to start than The Open Door." (World Literature Today)"

ISBN: 9780226104010

Dimensions: 23mm x 15mm x 2mm

Weight: 340g

224 pages