Meditations: The Assorted Prose of Barbara Guest

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. "We expect poets to give a first-hand account of what poetry is. But some poets, when they write criticism, produce a kind of prose that is itself on the verge of being poetry. Valery, Stevens and Marianne Moore belong to this 'visionary company.' And so does Barbara Guest, whose writings on poetry, collected here, are among the most inspiring works of their kind. It is a deep pleasure to know that such writing can still exist."―John Ashbery, reviewing a previous edition or volume "A collection such as Meditations , offering her [Barbara Guest's] conversation and thinking on writing and visual art, I would argue, makes for a remarkable entry point to her work, one rife with stellar lines and numerous prompts into other directions."―rob mclennan, rob mclennan's blog " Meditations exponentially expands our understanding of Guest's writerly interests and pursuits. The variegated wealth of her 'assorted prose' is likely to startle readers of her poetry, which is renowned for its freefloating and abstract approach, but that's part of the beauty of this book: It shows us a Barbara Guest who is opinionated, astute, and concise in posing judgement when necessary, while at the same time airy and open to chance when available."―Patrick James Dunagan, Rain Taxi "Suggestive and unique, Barbara Guest's poetic writing offers heady scintillations alongside clarities of perception. Joseph Shafer's incisive collection of Guest's prose exfoliates within this joyous oeuvre, its powers of perception, and frank, articulate angles."―Rachel Blau DuPlessis, author of Drafts "Barbara Guest fully embodies Gertrude Stein's quizzical maxim: 'All writing is written.' She is a writer's writer, inviting us to a place of shared perception inside her vast repository of references and experiences. This new collection reveals the genius, plasticity, and diverse range of Guest's prose: literary and cultural criticism, essay, portraiture, fictions, collaborations, talks, lists, and, perhaps most dazzlingly, reflections on her own process. These are articulations of how art comes to be―how different mediums, different artists, influence each other―revealing the 'contour[s] of a shared world.' Guest is an uncategorizable writer of the finest kind, and this book is an invaluable artifact of her continuing legacy."―Claudia Rankine "Barbara Guest's poetics is a necessary strike for that most beautiful and difficult of possibilities: the intelligence of imagination. Wounded grace and charm's force join with critical reflection and aesthetic discernment to make this collection a fundamental gift of the―still―New American Poetry."―Charles Bernstein, author of The Kinds of Poetry I Want: Essays and Comedies 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.