Body My House: May Swenson's Work and Life

by Paul Crumbley (Editor), Patricia M Gantt (Editor)

Overview

The first collection of critical essays on May Swenson and her literary universe, Body My House initiates an academic conversation about an unquestionably major poet of the middle and late twentienth century. Includes many previously unpublished Swenson poems.

Essays here address the breadth of Swenson's literary corpus and offer varied scholarly approaches to it. They reference Swenson manuscripts---poems, letters, diaries, and other prose---some of which have not been widely available before. Chapters focus on Swenson's work as a nature writer; the literary and social contexts of her writing; her national and international acclaim; her work as a translator; associations with other poets and writers (Bishop, Moore, and others); her creative process; and her profound explorations of gender and sexuality. The first full volume of scholarship on May Swenson, Body My House suggests an ambitious agenda for further work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874215434
Publisher:	Utah State University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, May Swenson produced eleven volumes of poetry, received many major awards, was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and was acclaimed by writers in virtually every school of American poetry.

Table of Contents

Contents For May Swenson Kenneth W. Brewer Introduction Patricia M. Gantt May Swenson Chronology Paul Crumbley and Patricia M. Gantt The Love Poems and Letters of May Swenson R. R. Knudson A Figure in the Tapestry: The Poet's Feeling Runs Ahead of Her Imagination (Greenwich Village, 1949-50) Paul Swenson May Swenson: Whitman's Daughter Alicia Ostriker May Swenson and Elizabeth Bishop Kirstin Hotelling Zona De-Cartesianizing the Universe: May Swenson's Design of Wor(l)ds Gudrun M. Grabher That Never Told CAN Be: May Swenson's Manuscript Witnesses Martha Nell Smith Material Girl: May Swenson's Logopoetic Materialism Cynthia Hogue May Swenson and Other Animals: Her Poetics of Natural Selection Paul Crumbley How Everything Happens: Notes on May Swenson's Theory of Writing Michael Spooner The Queer Poetics of May Swenson Suzanne Juhasz "Question" and More Questions: Two Shells for May Swenson Mark Doty Bibliography of the Works of May Swenson Compiled by Alice Geffen Introduced by Carole Berglie Works Cited and Consulted Notes on Contributors Index

Editorial Reviews

"A marvelous collection about a major national poet with a large and devoted audience. . . . Just looking at the table of contents makes one's heart leap."
—Steven Gould Axelrod, coeditor of The New Anthology of American Poetry: Modernisms 1900-1950

"The collection provides a much-needed view of both Swenson's unique voice and achievement and her place within the tradition of poetry. Scholarly without being obscure, it is accessible to the lay reader. As such, it should appeal to multiple audiences: librarians, professors, students of poetry, and long established Swenson fans, of whom there are many outside the academy."
—Gardner McFall, editor of Made with Words by May Swenson

From the Publisher