Discovery & Reminiscence

Essays on the Poetry of Mona Van Duyn

A former United States Poet Laureate, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of numerous grants and awards, Mona Van Duyn has been hailed as one of our greatest living American poets. To help broaden and uniquely inform our understanding of Van Duyn’s work, editor Michael Burns has gathered ten essays, a poem, a succinct biographical sketch, and Van Duyn’s own laureate address to the Library of Congress.

In the first section of this collection, poets Maxine Kumin and Carolyn Kizer provide tributes that elucidate the special effect Van Duyn’s poetry has had on their work and thought. Pulitzer Prize–winner Richard Howard contributes a poem that both extols the qualities of Van Duyn’s poems and lyrically places those qualities within her contemporary scene.

The second section contains eight essays exploring aspects as varied as Van Duyn’s penchant for particularity, her remarkable ability to rediscover for us the strangeness of everyday living, and her elegant style, fluid in both free verse and form. Included are contributions from Stephen Yenser, Rachel Hadas, Emily Grosholz, Sidney Burris, Ann Townsend, Michael Bugeja, Wyatt Prunty, and Jane Hoogestraat.

The final section opens with Van Duyn’s witty and incisive overview of the state of poetry in America at the close of the twentieth century. Also included is a short narrative history of Van Duyn’s literary career. Filled with keen prose by distinguished poets and critics, this collection is not only a resounding tribute to one poet’s body of work, but also a timely pulse-taking of the literary scene surrounding Van Duyn’s poetry.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.