Russell Atkins: On the Life Work of an American Master

Poetry. African American Studies. Literary History & Criticism. For over sixty years, poet, composer, dramatist, editor, and music theorist Russell Atkins has been admired by those who knew him for his brilliant, idiosyncratic poetry and wide-ranging intellect. All his work, however, was published by small, mostly avant-garde presses and today is completely out of print. This volume of the Unsung Masters Series reprints not just a large selection of his poetry, but also includes six essays on his work, his verse drama The Abortionist, and his essay "A Psychovisual Perspective on 'Musical' Composition."

Kevin Prufer is the author of several books of poems, including Fallen from a Chariot, National Anthem, In a Beautiful Country, and Churches. He's also co-edited New European Poets, Dark Horses: Essays on Overlooked Poems, and, for the Unsung Masters Series, DUNSTAN THOMPSON: ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF A LOST AMERICAN MASTER (2010). Most recently, he edited RUSSELL ATKINS: ON THE LIFE & WORK OF AN AMERICAN MASTER. He is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston.