Meditations: The Assorted Prose of Barbara Guest

Six decades of writing on literature and art by one of the most significant poets of our time

Meditations gathers together in one volume for the first time an extensive collection of the prose work of Barbara Guest (1920–2006), one of the major voices of twentieth century American literature. Known primarily as a poet, Guest worked in many styles, all represented herein: essays, lectures, art criticism, literary and art reviews, as well as forms of fiction, biography, poetic prose, drama, comics, and other mixed-genre pieces. This collection of the poet's prose illuminates Guest's singular genius, highlighting her structural awareness of language and placing her within the vanguard of American poetry. Much of her writing initially appeared in special editions, often through collaborations with visual artists. Lyrical and intellectually soaring, this collection is a treasure of insights into the relationship between language, image, and imagination. Joseph Shafer's introduction provides a meaningful context for sixty years' worth of critical and creative prose by one of America's finest poets.

BARBARA GUEST (1920–2006) published over twenty volumes of poetry, and earned awards including the Robert Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Society of America. JOSEPH SHAFER teaches at the University of Marburg and publishes on American poetry, critical theory, and aesthetics. He is also the coeditor of a new Selected Poems of Barbara Guest and is the author of Appearing Beside Text: Uprisings of In-difference in Post-1945 American Poetry. MARJORIE WELISH is a poet, painter, and art critic. She taught modern art history at Pratt Institute before holding the Madelon Leventhal Rand Endowed Chair in Literature at Brooklyn College. Her arts practice was the subject of the book, Of the Diagram: The Work of Marjorie Welish.