"The supreme heir to Wallace Stevens and one of the most original poets in the language."-RANDALL MANN
*Featured in the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) 2017 Holiday Catalog
In this stunning collection, distinguished poet Sidney Wade offers an exquisite array of poems at once sublime and playful, dedicated to the unearthly wonders of winged creatures. Wade's brilliantly vivid, elegant verse is sure to delight and inspire general readers, poetry enthusiasts, and avid birders or naturalists alike. Bird Book is a universal song of praise to the mysteries and intricacies of the animal world that surrounds us, and a wide-awake hymn, by a master lyricist, to the delights and surprises of our common language. It is an American treasure.
Sidney Wade’s poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry Magazine, and many other publications. She is the author of six volumes of poems: Straits & Narrows, Stroke, Celestial Bodies, Empty Sleeves, Green, and From Istanbul. She attended the University of Vermont, earning a BA in philosophy and an MEd in Counseling, received a PhD in English from the University of Houston, and has served as president of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). A Fulbright scholar and translator, Wade is a professor emerita at the University of Florida where she taught creative writing and was poetry editor for the UF literary journal Subtropics.
The release of Bird Book includes a trade print edition and an e-book enhanced with bird audio and photos.
Sidney Wade’s poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry Magazine, and many other publications. She is the author of six volumes of poems: Straits & Narrows, Stroke, Celestial Bodies, Empty Sleeves, Green, and From Istanbul. She attended the University of Vermont, earning a BA in philosophy and an MEd in Counseling, received a PhD in English from the University of Houston, and has served as president of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). A Fulbright scholar and translator, Wade is a professor emerita at the University of Florida where she taught creative writing and was poetry editor for the UF literary journal Subtropics.
The release of Bird Book includes a trade print edition and an e-book enhanced with bird audio and photos.
Praise for Bird Book:
"Incantatory in its music ... deploys light-hearted listening
and looking as the basis of its appeal. ... A bird walk with a
delightful guide who doesn't miss a note or a flash of wing.
... It seems we have swayed back to a sentimental poetics, and
hopefully not too late to save the world."
-THE RUMPUS
"The poems in Bird Book take delight in making a nimble song, but
as verbally playful and dexterous as they may be, they are equally
remarkable for their compassion, wit, and quiet powers of observation.
Sidney Wade’s natural world is one in which the lively and the lovely
frequently converge in that poetic service of giving fresh names to
all the eye and mind frequently take for granted. It isn’t just that Wade
deploys her winged subjects for our momentary consideration — the indigo
bunting, oriole, red-winged blackbird, cardinal, great white pelican
and snowy owl, to list just a few — but she does so in a way that results in
new, original expressions for love, awe, joy, and the subtle,
menacing acknowledgment that all life, in one way or another, is
migratory and gorgeously (if also sorrowfully) evanescent.
This is a beautiful, wise, and timely collection."
DANIEL ANDERSON, author of Night Guard at the Wilberforce Hotel
and looking as the basis of its appeal. ... A bird walk with a
delightful guide who doesn't miss a note or a flash of wing.
... It seems we have swayed back to a sentimental poetics, and
hopefully not too late to save the world."
-THE RUMPUS
"The poems in Bird Book take delight in making a nimble song, but
as verbally playful and dexterous as they may be, they are equally
remarkable for their compassion, wit, and quiet powers of observation.
Sidney Wade’s natural world is one in which the lively and the lovely
frequently converge in that poetic service of giving fresh names to
all the eye and mind frequently take for granted. It isn’t just that Wade
deploys her winged subjects for our momentary consideration — the indigo
bunting, oriole, red-winged blackbird, cardinal, great white pelican
and snowy owl, to list just a few — but she does so in a way that results in
new, original expressions for love, awe, joy, and the subtle,
menacing acknowledgment that all life, in one way or another, is
migratory and gorgeously (if also sorrowfully) evanescent.
This is a beautiful, wise, and timely collection."
DANIEL ANDERSON, author of Night Guard at the Wilberforce Hotel
"Bird Book is more than an aviary; in poems sleek as a beak and
'catholic // in their taste / for carrion,' Wade troubles the air with her eye
and ear for wonder — for creatures that, like us, are fragile but 'oddly / godly.'
This collection, unlike any I have read, builds, with its gorgeous,
expansive, 'earth-sprung language,' a compassionate call to action:
'we must learn to balance trust and power.' Sidney Wade’s linguistic
and philosophical turns in Bird Book confirm that she is
both the supreme heir to Wallace Stevens and one of the most
original poets in the language."
*RANDALL MANN, author of Straight Razor
'catholic // in their taste / for carrion,' Wade troubles the air with her eye
and ear for wonder — for creatures that, like us, are fragile but 'oddly / godly.'
This collection, unlike any I have read, builds, with its gorgeous,
expansive, 'earth-sprung language,' a compassionate call to action:
'we must learn to balance trust and power.' Sidney Wade’s linguistic
and philosophical turns in Bird Book confirm that she is
both the supreme heir to Wallace Stevens and one of the most
original poets in the language."
*RANDALL MANN, author of Straight Razor
"In her concluding poem from Bird Book, Sidney Wade writes,
'This earth-sprung language, bright and resonant, rattles from the
throats of the leaving cranes.' It is difficult to imagine a more precise description
of Wade's own language in this marvelous new collection. And as impressive
and thrillingly exact as these poems are concerning matters ornithological,
it is the exquisite music -- 'earth-sprung, bright, and resonant' -- of Wade's
radically short line that so enchants me, the free play of interlinear rhyme,
phonemic harmonies, and small bursts of metrical rhythms that yield
more vitality and delight than any gathering of poems I have encountered
in a very long time. If a gang of angels conspired to write a field guide
to selected birds, I think it might resemble Bird Book."
**B.H. FAIRCHILD, author of The Blue Buick and Usher
'This earth-sprung language, bright and resonant, rattles from the
throats of the leaving cranes.' It is difficult to imagine a more precise description
of Wade's own language in this marvelous new collection. And as impressive
and thrillingly exact as these poems are concerning matters ornithological,
it is the exquisite music -- 'earth-sprung, bright, and resonant' -- of Wade's
radically short line that so enchants me, the free play of interlinear rhyme,
phonemic harmonies, and small bursts of metrical rhythms that yield
more vitality and delight than any gathering of poems I have encountered
in a very long time. If a gang of angels conspired to write a field guide
to selected birds, I think it might resemble Bird Book."
**B.H. FAIRCHILD, author of The Blue Buick and Usher
"The quick, closely observed poems in Sidney Wade's beguiling Bird Book
move from page to page like their subjects -- in flight, on air,
a murmuration sweeping across the horizon. Curl up with this
lovely book, or better still, take it out to the woods and the
crowded skies and let it be your field guide."
WILLIAM SOUDER, author of Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon
and the Making of The Birds of America, Pulitzer Prize Finalist
move from page to page like their subjects -- in flight, on air,
a murmuration sweeping across the horizon. Curl up with this
lovely book, or better still, take it out to the woods and the
crowded skies and let it be your field guide."
WILLIAM SOUDER, author of Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon
and the Making of The Birds of America, Pulitzer Prize Finalist
"Supple and airy as their subjects, and as durable and colorful, too,
Sidney Wade’s poems in Bird Book remind us of the sonic closeness of
the words 'bird' and 'bard.' These are poems of wit, surprise, elegance,
joy, and a sense of the marvelous. They take flight."
MARK JARMAN, author of The Heronry
Sidney Wade’s poems in Bird Book remind us of the sonic closeness of
the words 'bird' and 'bard.' These are poems of wit, surprise, elegance,
joy, and a sense of the marvelous. They take flight."
MARK JARMAN, author of The Heronry
"Luminous ... graceful ... precise. Wade makes us look up and out
past our phones and screens to the trees, the sky."
RUBEN QUESADA, author of Next Extinct Mammal
past our phones and screens to the trees, the sky."
RUBEN QUESADA, author of Next Extinct Mammal
Additional Praise for Sidney Wade:
"Wade is a poet who has been found and possessed
by her authentic daemon, creating memorable verbal objects
of great freshness and power for which we may be,
as Mr. Auden once said in another
connection, honestly grateful."
RICHARD HOWARD, Pultizer Prize winner
& former poetry editor of The Paris Review
by her authentic daemon, creating memorable verbal objects
of great freshness and power for which we may be,
as Mr. Auden once said in another
connection, honestly grateful."
RICHARD HOWARD, Pultizer Prize winner
& former poetry editor of The Paris Review
"Having enlarged her scope with each collection, [Wade is]
becoming something of an oracle of the outlook for intelligence
and happiness. Here's hoping more and more
readers come to consult her."
JORDAN DAVIS, Slate
becoming something of an oracle of the outlook for intelligence
and happiness. Here's hoping more and more
readers come to consult her."
JORDAN DAVIS, Slate
"Wade offers elegant, backlit poems that float
like bubbles but are more substantial."
LIBRARY JOURNAL
like bubbles but are more substantial."
LIBRARY JOURNAL
"Wade's light touch [is] inherited perhaps from
Marianne Moore who had her own penchant for animal poems."
ForeWord
Marianne Moore who had her own penchant for animal poems."
ForeWord
"In our hyperaware age, Wade is highly unusual because she is
neither interested in the airy sublime nor the backhanded
glib gesture; she knows that things are tough all over;
she believes that the best way to make one’s way is to trust, in
a gloriously mistrustful way, language."
THE RUMPUS
neither interested in the airy sublime nor the backhanded
glib gesture; she knows that things are tough all over;
she believes that the best way to make one’s way is to trust, in
a gloriously mistrustful way, language."
THE RUMPUS
Bird Book
ISBN: 978-0-9976523-3-8
5.5 x 8.5 paperback / 100 pages / $16.00
(also an enhanced e-book with color illustrations & links to bird audio!)
September 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9976523-3-8
5.5 x 8.5 paperback / 100 pages / $16.00
(also an enhanced e-book with color illustrations & links to bird audio!)
September 2017
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