Strange Good Fortune: Essays on Contemporary Poetry

By David Wojahn

A collection of 15 essays (most of which have been previously published in earlier versions) by Wojahn (poetry, Indiana U.), in which he comments on different issues raised by the study of contemporary poetry. In the essays he looks at the future of autobiographical poetry, the practice and possibilities of teaching poetry, rock and roll in America

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557287082
• ISBN13: 9781557287083
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

More Good Fortune than Strange

It's essays on contemporary poetry but generally those that are more narrative than elliptical. Don't let this be a deterrent to you who swim in strange worlds. On the Flesch scale of readability, (does anyone even remember what that is?) the book is right on par with Stephen Burt's Close Encounters with Nonsense, meaning easily taken in doses as large as you want. Excellent essay subjects include poetry and anger, poetic hoaxes (or not), and neo-narrative. A couple didn't interest me, such as the essay on rock music and poetry, which says more about my own knowledge base and interests than it does about the essay. What makes the book a real pleasure is Wojahn's breadth of knowledge combined with the guts to voice a strong, backed up opinion (unlike so much criticism these days). As a direct result of this book I'm now adding to my immediate find list works by James Wright and of course Wojahn. (It's also nice to see someone for whom Dubie is a favorite.) You'll probably end up making your own list of to-reads. As if people didn't have enough work on their plate, here's a bug to place in the author's ear...how about a book like this focusing on people like Armantrout, Brock-Broido, and perhaps even Bernstein's more recent work. Now that would be a humdinger.