Veil
New and Selected Poems
Series: Wesleyan Poetry Series
Sales Date: 2001-10-23
150 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
First book of selected poems by this core member of the Language writing group.
Rae Armantrout, a core member of the Language writing movement, has long been known for the wit, emotion and punch of her social critique. Veil contains poems from five of Armantrout's previous books as well as a generous selection of new poems. Her work relies tenaciously on the intelligibility of language, her careful syntax bordering on plain speech and meticulously scored lines always questioning how linguistic subjects are formed. Armantrout is interested in questions of origin, and the psychology of perception; she is interested in who is speaking and how we know what we know. Fans will welcome the chance to become reacquainted with her witty and lyric meditations on erotic and family issues, and new readers will be captivated by her poems' immediate availability and freshness.
RAE ARMANTROUT is a professor of writing in the literature department at the University of California at San Diego, and the author of eight books of poetry, including Up to Speed (2003) and Veil: New and Selected Poems (2001).
"Armantrout is usually considered the most lyrically oriented of the language poets . . . Wesleyan's selection shows that—as with William Carlos Williams, to whom Armantrout owes a debt in the curious torquing of her sentences – it is not stylistic pyrotechnics, grandiose theoretical syntheses or encyclopedic references that drive these terrific poems, but an original and quirky turn of mind."
~Publishers Weekly
""Armantrout is usually considered the most lyrically oriented of the language poets . . . Wesleyan's selection shows that—as with William Carlos Williams, to whom Armantrout owes a debt in the curious torquing of her sentences – it is not stylistic pyrotechnics, grandiose theoretical syntheses or encyclopedic references that drive these terrific poems, but an original and quirky turn of mind.""
~Publishers Weekly
""This long-awaited collection proves that Armantrout is not a 'language poet' and is not confined by expectations of the American avant-garde, among which much of her work has appeared. In brief lines and unexpected weavings, Armantrout addresses history, love, nature, and the darkness of domesticity. This is one of the best books of poetry released in 2001.""
~Bloomsbury Review
"Wit like the proverbial razor, clarity a shimmer of glass, these poems make truth a simple matter, elegant, wistful—forever."
~Robert Creeley, author of Life & Death
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