REALITY STREET EDITIONS is proud to announce publication of _If So, Tell
Me_, a new collection by the distinguished American poet BARBARA GUEST.
This will be her first original, individual collection published in
Britain, and her first book published in this country since the Carcanet
edition of her Selected Poems.
Barbara Guest first came to prominence in the 1960s in New York City where
she connected with the New York Poets, such as John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara,
Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler, and the artists of Abstract Expressionism,
who influenced her poetry.
She was born in North Carolina in 1920 and spent her childhood in Florida
and California, where she graduated from the University of California at
Berkeley, before moving to New York.
Since the 1970s her writing has moved in the experimental direction for
which she is recognised, and has become a major influence. Her books
include _The Location of Things_ (1960), _Moscow Mansions_ (1973), the
novel _Seeking Air_ (1977) and the biography _Herself Defined: The Poet HD
and Her World_ (1984). The poet and art critic Marjorie Welish has written
of her: "In Guest's understanding the lyric is truly a speculative field
... constituted of imaginative speculations... Resisting lyricism through
tactics of difficulty is also a practice at which she excels."
_If So, Tell Me_ is an astonishing sequence of short (one- to three-page)
poems which shows absolutely no diminution of her power to work at the far
edge of language and lyricism. The book has a front cover designed by the
British-born artist, resident in New York, Anne Dunn.
Those ordering as a result of receiving this email message may do so
post-free. Just send a sterling cheque for £6.50 made out to REALITY STREET
EDITIONS at
4 Howard Court
Peckham Rye
London SE15 3PH
Signed-up Supporters of Reality Street Editions will be receiving their
copy in the next few days. For details of how to become a Supporter, please
email me.
Ken Edwards
BARBARA GUEST: IF SO, TELL ME
2 August 1999 1-874400-16-4 £6.50
200 x 145mm paperback 56pp Cover art by Anne Dunn
Support from Eastern Arts gratefully acknowledged
Apologies for cross-posting
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