The Bicycle and the Soul - Michael Waters
“The consistency of his work over the past thirty years has contributed greatly to American letters, and his unique voice within the poetry world illuminates, with precision and clarity, the intricate nature of the human condition.”
–Esteban Rodríguez, American Book Review
2024ISBN 979-8-9853587-7-3$18.95In ten incisive and accessible essays, Michael Waters delves into individual poems by several unique American poets—Jean Valentine, C.K. Williams, Alicia Ostriker, Gerald Stern, Diane Wakoski, Bill Knott, Isabella Gardner, and Frank Stanford—and into two poems of his own to consider how all aspects of craft converge toward each poem’s creation. In addition, he includes a half-dozen more personal pieces about becoming a poet. Waters’ prose, like his poetry, is insightful and passionate, as well as useful to anyone interested in the making of art.
Michael Waters has published numerous books of poetry, among them Sinnerman (Etruscan Press, 2023), Caw (BOA Editions, 2020), The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006), finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Parthenopi: New & Selected Poems (BOA Editions, 2001), finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. He has edited/co-edited several anthologies, including Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020), Contemporary American Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), and Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003). His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Yale Review, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, and North American Review, among other journals. Recipient of five Pushcart Prizes, fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council & the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, he lives without a cell phone in Ocean, NJ.
“The consistency of his work over the past thirty years has contributed greatly to American letters, and his unique voice within the poetry world illuminates, with precision and clarity, the intricate nature of the human condition.”
–Esteban Rodríguez, American Book Review
2024ISBN 979-8-9853587-7-3$18.95In ten incisive and accessible essays, Michael Waters delves into individual poems by several unique American poets—Jean Valentine, C.K. Williams, Alicia Ostriker, Gerald Stern, Diane Wakoski, Bill Knott, Isabella Gardner, and Frank Stanford—and into two poems of his own to consider how all aspects of craft converge toward each poem’s creation. In addition, he includes a half-dozen more personal pieces about becoming a poet. Waters’ prose, like his poetry, is insightful and passionate, as well as useful to anyone interested in the making of art.
Michael Waters has published numerous books of poetry, among them Sinnerman (Etruscan Press, 2023), Caw (BOA Editions, 2020), The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006), finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Parthenopi: New & Selected Poems (BOA Editions, 2001), finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. He has edited/co-edited several anthologies, including Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020), Contemporary American Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), and Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003). His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Yale Review, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, and North American Review, among other journals. Recipient of five Pushcart Prizes, fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council & the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, he lives without a cell phone in Ocean, NJ.
“The consistency of his work over the past thirty years has contributed greatly to American letters, and his unique voice within the poetry world illuminates, with precision and clarity, the intricate nature of the human condition.”
–Esteban Rodríguez, American Book Review
2024ISBN 979-8-9853587-7-3$18.95In ten incisive and accessible essays, Michael Waters delves into individual poems by several unique American poets—Jean Valentine, C.K. Williams, Alicia Ostriker, Gerald Stern, Diane Wakoski, Bill Knott, Isabella Gardner, and Frank Stanford—and into two poems of his own to consider how all aspects of craft converge toward each poem’s creation. In addition, he includes a half-dozen more personal pieces about becoming a poet. Waters’ prose, like his poetry, is insightful and passionate, as well as useful to anyone interested in the making of art.
Michael Waters has published numerous books of poetry, among them Sinnerman (Etruscan Press, 2023), Caw (BOA Editions, 2020), The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006), finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Parthenopi: New & Selected Poems (BOA Editions, 2001), finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. He has edited/co-edited several anthologies, including Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020), Contemporary American Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), and Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003). His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Yale Review, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, and North American Review, among other journals. Recipient of five Pushcart Prizes, fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council & the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, he lives without a cell phone in Ocean, NJ.
