Rising, Falling, Hovering

International Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize 2009

"C.D. Wright's thirteenth collection, Rising, Falling, Hovering, reminds us what poetry is for. This is poetry as white phosphorus, written with merciless love and depthless anger." —from the Griffin Prize judges' citation

"Wright is a resolutely experimental poet, funny and intemperate, and the poems in her latest volume manage an unusual alchemy—they have a raw, unfinished quality that never feels provisional." —The New Yorker

"Wright belongs to a school of exactly one."
—New York Times Book Review

"These poems succeed at storytelling and at painting realistic scenes. Wright emerges a modern woman coping with relationships in a world full of violence and wars. Recommended for larger public libraries and all academic collections."
—Library Journal

“Wright braids some of her most personal and intimate poetry to date with an extended meditation on the consequences of America's contemporary stance toward other countries.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“C.D. Wright has an uncanny and characteristic reverence for both the vernacular and the esoteric, which leads to riveting and rare depictions of American culture. . . . It's been a while since I read an entire book of poetry in rapture. After finishing Rising, Falling, Hovering, I was reminded of why I love the medium, what it can do.”—The Stranger (Seattle)

Deeply personal and politically ferocious, Rising, Falling, Hovering addresses the commonly felt crises of our times—from illegal immigration and the specific consequences of empire-building to the challenges of parenting and the honesty required of human relationships.

About the other night I know you are sorry I am sorry too We were tired Me
and my open-shut-case mouth You and your clockwork disciplines And I know it is
too far to go But we can't leave it to the forces to rub out the color of the world

C.D. Wright is the author of a dozen collections of poetry and prose. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Wright is a professor of English at Brown University and lives outside Providence, Rhode Island.

C.D. Wright, a Professor of English at Brown University, is the author of eleven books of poetry, as well as several collaborative works with photographer Deborah Luster, most recently One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana. She has earned fellowships from the MacArthur and Guggenheim foundations, and is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award. She lives in Rhode Island.