With paris as a backdrop, cole, an awardwinning american poet explores with fresh and penetrating insight the nature of friendship and family. Heaven, his second book, is full of heavens large and smallso many it seems hes been taking backhanders from the heaven lobby for product placement. See all books authored by henri cole, including the visible man. From 19821988, he was executive director of the academy of american poets. Cole has published eight books of poetry, including pierce the skin. Nothing to declare by henri cole is available in these. Poet, professor of literature claremont mckenna college. Henri cole, the author of nine books of poems, was awarded a merit medal by the american academy of arts and letters in march 2016, and his most recent book is nothing to declare farrar, straus and giroux, 2015. Each poem starts up from its own unique occasion and is then conducted through surprising som. This impressionistic paean to paris from poet cole nothing to declare bypasses conventional. He has received many awards for his work, including the jackson prize, the kingsley tufts award, the rome prize, the berlin prize, a guggenheim fellowship, the lenore marshall award, a fellowship from the radcliffe institute for.
The former head of the academy of american poets, coles writing is intimate and emotionally riveting as it rolls across the landscapes of love, life, death, and war. It is a place where i am able to escape the shadows, writes cole literatureclaremont mckenna coll nothing to declare. The title is a wink at how carefully cole worked through these poems. He has published nine collections of poetry, including middle earth, which was a finalist for the pulitzer prize in poetry. Henri cole orphic paris corte madera store book passage. Autobiography of my mother, lucy and poet henri cole nothing to declare, touch july 27. He has published nine collections of poetry, including middle earth, which was a finalist for the pulitzer prize. John james wins the 2nd annual max ritvo poetry prize. Nothing to declare by henri cole fsg by aj cohn, contributing writer the spirit of henri cole s latest collection of poetry is beautifully encapsulated in its title, nothing to declare. This playful irony, of a declaration coyly denying itself, pervades. He lives in the san francisco bay area, where he is pursuing a phd in english at the university of california, berkeley.
Henri cole books list of books by author henri cole. The poems in henri coles ninth book, nothing to declare, explore life and need and delight. The spirit of henri coles latest collection of poetry is beautifully encapsulated in its title, nothing to declare. He received his ba from the college of william and mary in 1978, his ma from the university of wisconsin at milwaukee in 1980, and his mfa from columbia university in 1982. A bold new collection of poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability henri coles bold new collection, nothing to declare, contains poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability. A parody of nothing to declare australian border security, set in i. Henri coles orphic paris combines autobiography, diary, essay, and prose poetry with photographs to create a new form of elegiac memoir.
The hard and soft cs duplicated in words as different as concept and corpse, and of course, for the. A bold new collection of poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability the poems in henri coles ninth book, nothing to declare, explore life and need and delight. Henri coles bold new collection, nothing to declare, contains poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability. Orphic paris with author henri cole in conversation with. Henri is one of our most talented and observant of american poets. Henri coles nothing to declare is a clever and wellconstructed collection. Publishers weekly his ninth collection is stunning in its clarity, control, and bottomless depth of field. The highly acclaimed cole touch begins his ninth collection with the perilous honesty that audiences have come to expectand valuein his work. Few things embolden the iconoclast like punditrys insistence on singing mediocrity.
Jessie carty is the author of seven poetry collections which include the chapbook an amateur marriage finishing line, 2012, which was a finalist for the 2011 robert watson prize, and her newest full length collection practicing disaster aldrich press in 2014. Henri cole is the author of nine collections of poetry including, most recently, nothing to declare, and a memoir, orphic paris. Henri cole s nothing to declare is a clever and wellconstructed collection. The school of english, together with poetry ireland, hosted a reading by american poet henri cole on wednesday the 30th of november. He is the recipient of many awards, including the lenore marshall poetry prize, the kingsley tufts poetry. He has received many awards for his work, including the jackson prize, the kingsley tufts award, the rome prize, the berlin prize, the lenore marshall poetry prize, and the medal in. On fellowship radcliffe institute for advanced study at.
Most of the graphics are borrowed from the original, as is the music used. He took risks, and i hope i can learn to do some of that myself. Henri cole was born in fukuoka, japan and raised in virginia. I just finished reading henri coles nothing to declare. Rowan ricardo phillipss slightly offkilter poems promise more than they deliver, but they have crotchets and quavers and notes too flat or sharp that suggest a poetic imagination still under construction. He received his ba from the college of william and mary in 1978, his ma from the university of. Each poem starts up from its own unique occasion and is then conducted through sur. With precise sophistication, cole perfects a crucial technique of poetrythe art of close speculationand does so with intrepid grace.
The first line of the first poem in henri coles newest collection of verse, nothing to declare fsg, 2015 is at the end of the road from concept to corpse, a line that shows coles characteristic mastery of sound and surprise. Henri cole was born in fukuoka, japan, in 1956 and raised in virginia. It is refreshing to a find a collection that is so accessible and profound at the same time. A bold new collection of poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerabilitythe poems in henri coles ninth book, nothing to declare, explore life and need and delight. The last poem in the collection, the constant leaf, concludes with these startling lines. Mixing genres in works like touch, middle earth, and his latest collection nothing to declare, cole has found a way to bring poetry into the 21st century, without losing sight of what makes it such an enduring, ageless art form. Volumes of poetry include nothing to declare 2015, touch 2011, blackbird and wolf 2008, middle earth 2003, which received the kingsley tufts poetry award, and the visible man 1998. John james is the author of the milk hours, selected by henri cole as winner of the max ritvo poetry prize. Henri cole a bold new collection of poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability the poems in henri coles ninth book, nothing to declare, explore life and need and delight. Nothing to declare by henri cole overdrive rakuten. We live in a time where, in the last decade or two, there was a drift away from the essentialness of emotion, because of the fashions of poetry and so i wanted my book to sort of focus on the essentialness of piercing the skinpoems should have fear, wonder, grief, desperation, triumph, some element of these emotions in them. He has received many awards for his work, including the jackson prize, the kingsley tufts award, the rome prize, the berlin prize, the lenore marshall award, and the medal in poetry from the american academy of arts and letters.
Its strange how the past holds on to us, how the rapture of the lonely s. Others have compared him to walt whitman and elizabeth bishop. He has published ten collections of poetry and received many awards for his work, including the jackson poetry prize, the kingsley tufts award, the rome prize, the berlin prize, the ambassador book award, the lenore marshall award, and the medal in poetry from the american academy of arts and letters. American academy of arts and sciences college of arts. Henri coles nothing to declare posted by joseph spece on october 5, 2015 few things embolden the iconoclast like punditrys insistence on singing mediocrity. Henri cole was born in fukuoka, japan, to an american father and frencharmenian mother, and raised in virginia, united states. Maybe not with actual airport customs, but through my choices of poetic subject matter and how i find the right words at the right time. Henri coles latest book nothing to declare will be released march 31. The literary critic harold bloom has called henri cole ri 15 the central poet of his generation.
Glasgowbased poet jesscooke is no stranger to difficult subjects. In the news radcliffe institute for advanced study at. He gathers many lessons from the poets of the 50s and 60s. His work is somewhere between robert merrill and elizabeth bishop. Jessie is a freelance writer, teacher, and curator of the online literary space then and if. Novelistmemoirist howard norman next life might be kinder, the bird artist, the museum guard and novelist. A master of cadence and the interweaving of rhythms and meanings. Henri cole, professor of english, has been hailed as the most important american poet under sixty.