On returning home from our summer holiday last night, I was pleased to find in the mail pile my contributor copies of Poems of the American South (Knopf), edited by David Biespiel. A beautiful book, it draws from several centuries and is shaped by an admirably catholic notion of what constitutes Southern poetry. The fact that the editor chose to include my poem “Trip Hop” rather than one of my more explicitly Southern poems is perhaps indicative of the volume’s fresh take on its subject. Read more ...