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Anne Stevenson

Collected Poems

Anne Stevenson

Publication Date : 23 Feb 2023

ISBN: 9781780376516

Pages: 65
Size :216 x 138mm
Rights: World

Anne Stevenson (1933-2020) was a major American and British poet. Born in Cambridge of American parents, she grew up in the States but lived in Britain for most of her adult life. Rooted in close observation of the world and acute psychological insight, her poems continually question how we see and think about the world. They are incisive as well as entertaining, marrying critical rigour with personal feeling, and a sharp wit with an original brand of serious humour. Her posthumously published Collected Poems is a remaking of Anne Stevenson’s earlier Poems 1955-2005 (Bloodaxe Books, 2005), expanded to include poems from her final three books, Stone Milk (2007), Astonishment (2012) and Completing the Circle (2020), drawing on sixteen collections which are presented in their original order of publication.

‘her Collected Poems … speaks to pressing contemporary questions of female subjectivity, ageing, artistic production and relevance. Her poetry is guided by determination, care of craft, and a largely concealed emotional dynamism, which occasionally breaks through the calm surface of her verse, revealing a woman unable to settle or be satisfied.’ – Hannah Voss, The Times Literary Supplement

‘This volume serves both as an excellent introduction for those inexplicably not familiar with her poetry and a welcome compilation to dip in and return to for those who do know her work.’ – Emma Lee, London Grip, on Collected Poems

‘The timeless and the quotidian are plaited elegantly in these vivid lines... It’s a fine memorial to Stevenson (1933-2020), a poet whose intense, delighted response to the natural world continues to enrich our “travelling senses”.’ – Carol Rumens, Poem of the Week, The Guardian, on ‘In the Tunnel of Summers’ from Collected Poems

'This text should not only adorn a bookshelf; the contents of the work also show that in the end, 'art has to triumph over experience' and thereby provide readers and listeners with equipment vital for endurance in what Stevenson called a 'terrifying century'.' – Chris McCully, PN Review, on Collected Poems

'It's hard to do justice to the range of subject-matter in Stevenson's life-work, but the way she illuminates the past of her two countries, US and UK, exploring the idea of unavoidable, invidious 'legacies' in each case, is one of her claimes to be a 'great' writer.' – Dilys Wood, ARTEMISpoetry, on Collected Poems

‘Bloodaxe published landmark editions by two remarkable northern poets in February... The comprehensive and expertly curated new Collected Poems by the late Anne Stevenson is wonderful reading experience that shows the incredible range and quality of her life’s work as poet.’ – Will Mackie, New Writing North (New & recent poetry from the North)

'There is an intense musicality that runs throughout her poetry, with tunes and rhythms emerging as you read. You can get lost in the experience as the poems are read aloud... In Stevenson’s poetry, observations became one with music, entering into a playfully evasive dance. Collected Poems is both a celebration of a life’s work and an entry point to new readers who want to experience a poet’s life through their poems.' – Rory Clarkson, READ (Research in English At Durham)

‘Across the collection, Stevenson’s poems appear as unforgettable vignettes that emphasise, in her words, “the craft, coherence and architecture” of her oeuvre. Poems like ‘The Women’ and ‘To My Daughter in a Red Coat’ are poignantly stratified explorations of the self in conversation with the natural world: a theme that is part of Stevenson’s enduring legacy and bears testament to the formal range of her writing. This is a key volume for anyone interested in modern British poetry.' – Shalini Sengupta, Poetry Book Society Bulletin, Spring 2023, on Collected Poems

'Stevenson’s accomplishments as a poet are nothing short of vast. Her work is by turns tender-hearted, funny, argumentative and lyrical. Her sense of place is exquisitely refined, and place in her poems becomes a moral stance, a place to stand and regard the world.' – Jay Parini, The Guardian, paying tribute to Anne Stevenson

‘She’ll rightly be regarded as one of the major poets of our period.  Her poems, written over decades, were rich in philosophy and humanity.’ – George Szirtes on Anne Stevenson, quoted on BBC Radio 3's The Verb

'Her meticulously crafted poetry was elegiac, witty, passionate and sharply visual.' – The Telegraph, paying tribute to Anne Stevenson

‘Her poems are remarkable for her penetrating questioning of the way we see things and her interpretation of the world around us.’ – Alan Taylor, The Herald (Scotland), paying tribute to Anne Stevenson

'Fifty years of powerful verse from one of Britain's major poets.' – Independent on Sunday

‘While Anne Stevenson is most certainly, and rightly, regarded as one of the major poets of our period, it has never been by virtue of this or that much anthologised poem, but by the work or mind as a whole. It is not so much a matter of the odd lightning-struck tree as of an entire landscape, and that landscape is always humane, intelligent and sane, composed of both natural and rational elements, and amply furnished with patches of wit and fury, which only serve to bring out the humanity.’ – George Szirtes, London Magazine

‘Her knowledge of botany, ornithology and other natural sciences is impressive, but her talent is for fusing the disciplines into an honest and humane account of our world, and expressing this through rhythm and form…She is wise without portentousness, her technique faultless and her imagination fiery, political and fresh.’ – Carol Rumens, The Independent [on A Report from the Border]

Anne Stevenson reads seven poems

Anne Stevenson reads seven poems now republished in her Collected Poems: ‘Making Poetry’, ‘Poem for a Daughter’, ‘A Marriage’, ‘Arioso Dolente’, ‘The Minister’, ‘Beach Kites’ and ‘Small Philosophical Poem’. Pamela Robertson-Pearce filmed Anne Stevenson at Highgreen Manor, Tarset, Northumberland (next-door to Bloodaxe’s former Tarset office) on 23 February 2008. This film is from the DVD-anthology In Person: 30 Poets, filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce & edited by Neil Astley (Bloodaxe Books, 2008).

Anne Stevenson: ‘In Passing’ (now ‘As the Past Passes’)

Anne Stevenson reads and discusses a poem then called ‘In Passing’ which she re-titled ‘As the Past Passes’ when she included it in her final collection, Completing the Circle. Pamela Robertson-Pearce filmed Anne at her home in Durham on 8 March 2015 for the Transatlantic issue of the US journal Ploughshares edited by Neil Astley (issue 126, Spring 2015) in which this poem was first published.

Carrie Hitchcock reading three poems by her mother Anne Stevenson

Carrie Hitchcock reads To My Daughter in a Red Coat, 'At Thirteen' and 'Poem for a Daughter'. Recorded by Neil Astley at St Chad's College, Durham on 1st March 2023.

Anne Stevenson’s daughter Carrie Hitchcock reads two poems from Correspondences (1974)

Carrie Hitchcock reads 'From an Asylum: Kathy Chattle to her mother Ruth Arbeiter' and 'A daughter’s difficulties as a wife: Mrs Reuben Chandler to her mother in New Orleans', both of which are included in Collected Poems. Recorded by Neil Astley at St Chad's College, Durham on 1st March 2023.

 

Ireland & EU: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin

USA: Click here to order from Indiebound or Bookshop.org

  

BOOKS BY Anne Stevenson

About Poems and how poems are not about

Anne Stevenson

About Poems and how poems are not about

Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures

Publication Date : 23 Mar 2017

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Astonishment

Anne Stevenson

Astonishment

Publication Date : 25 Oct 2012

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Completing the Circle

Anne Stevenson

Completing the Circle

Publication Date : 27 Feb 2020

Read More   amazon.co.uk
Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop

Anne Stevenson

Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop

Publication Date : 23 Feb 2006

Read More   amazon.co.uk

Related News & Publicity

News & Publicity


Anne Stevenson's Collected Poems: reviews & poem features

Anne Stevenson's Collected Poems: reviews & poem features

Reviews for the late Anne Stevenson's Collected Poems; Poem of the Week features in The Yorkshire Times & The Guardian; feature review in the TLS.

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Poetry Events


Launch reading for Anne Stevenson and Peter Bennet books

Launch reading for Anne Stevenson and Peter Bennet books

Joint launch and tribute event for Anne Stevenson and Peter Bennet books at St Chad's College, Durham on 1 March 2023: videos now on our YouTube channel.

Read More  |  View All

News & Publicity


Anne Stevenson 1933-2020

Anne Stevenson 1933-2020

We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of Anne Stevenson, age 87.

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