Marie Gauthier

My W. W. Norton sales rep canceled our meeting this morning due to the plague, but I’ve looked through the catalogs already, and the poetry list is awe-some:

• Catching Life by the Throat: Poems from 8 Great Masters. How to read a poem & why. by Josephine Hart, includes 80 min audio CD recorded live at the British Library. I’ve actually been on the lookout for this, as it was published in the UK last year, I think, and very favorably reviewed in the TLS.
• Unmentionables, a new book of poems by Beth Ann Fennelly.
• Women Reading to the Sea, poems by Lisa Williams–winner of the 2007 Barnard Women Poets Prize. I’m not remotely familiar with this poet, but the jacket cover of this book is nice gorgeous, and I liked the excerpt in the catalog.
• The Bishop’s Daughter, a memoir by Honor Moore.
• The Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography. Stanley Plumly “meditates on the chances of poetic immortality.”
• Save the Last Dance, new poems by Gerald Stern.
• The Second Blush, new poems by Molly Peacock. Been a while since she had a collection.
• The Wave-Maker, new poems by Elizabeth Spires–another beautiful cover. In fact, let me go on the record here & state that if you have a chance to have your book published by Norton, go for it, if only because they produce really wonderful books. If you need a reason.
• And The Odyssey: A Dramatic Retelling of Homer’s Epic, by Simon Armitage.

I don’t remember the pub dates, but a good bet is that they’ll all be out in time for National Poetry Month, i.e., April, a.k.a., Support Poetry With Put-Your-Money-Where-Your-Mouth-Is-Cold-Hard-Cash Month. So start socking away your pennies now…