Illinois Voices: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETRY - Softcover

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9780252069789: Illinois Voices: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETRY

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252069781 ISBN 13: 9780252069789

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2001

Illinois may at first glance seem distant from the epicenter of the literary rebellion of twentieth-century poetry, but much of that revolt was fomented by writers of the Chicago Renaissance and unfurled in the pages of Chicago's own little magazine, Harriet Monroe's "Poetry". Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology" marked a further turning on the road of experimentation. "Illinois Voices" includes the work of more than seventy-five poets, both those closely associated with Illinois (Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg, Kenneth Fearing, and John Knoepfle) and those, such as Oak Park-born Ernest Hemingway, whose connection with the state may surprise. Some poems reflect a strong regional sensibility; many others have more universal concerns. Defining an Illinois poet as one born in Illinois or one who produced a considerable body of significant work while living in the state, this generous volume covers a range of poetic styles and aesthetics, from formalist to avant-garde, jazz-inspired to rural plain-speaking. The editors collaborated closely with the living poets in selecting the pieces included. From Gwendolyn Brooks' cutting portrait of the "Ladies from the Ladies' Betterment League" to Allison Joseph's urban "homemade streetcorner music" to Lisel Mueller's gently sardonic map of the small-town Midwest ("Austrian food is not served in Vienna, / and people in Paris drink Coke, not wine"), "Illinois Voices" magnifies the fragile threads of human connection. These rich and memorable poems transmit not only the quirky, multifaceted personality of the state but also a human geography that transcends precise location.

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Review:

"The editors ... hope to 'surprise and confirm' our sense of Illinois poetry, and they succeed admirably... The anthology is not boosterism but includes the ambivalence about Illinois that has long characterized its literature." -- Lisa Woolley, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society ADVANCE PRAISE "This is a very exciting anthology. The editors have done an impressive job of gathering splendid individual poems as well as fully representing the schools, modes, and tastes of Illinois poetry. Illinois Voices establishes a large sense of cultural history and poetic evolution, presenting not only poetry from Illinois but a microcosm of twentieth-century American poetry." -- David Baker, author of Heresy and the Ideal: On Contemporary Poetry

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