Dorianne Laux's Books

What We Carry

By: Dorianne Laux

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Finalist, 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Dorianne Laux's poetry is a poetry of risk; it goes to the very edge of extinction to find the hard facts that need to be sung. What We Carry includes poems of survival, poems of healing, poems of affirmation and poems of celebration.

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BOA Editions, Ltd.

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ISBN 10

1938160371

ISBN 13

9781938160370

Life on Earth: Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

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Life on Earth: Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry. Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux returns with an insightful, compassionate, and spirited volume that celebrates the imperfect miracle of humanity. In her seventh collection, Dorianne Laux once again offers poems that move us, include us, and appreciate us fully as the flawed humans we are. Life on Earth is a book of praise for our planet and ourselves, delivered with Laux’s trademark vitality, frank observation, and earthy wisdom. With odes to the unlikely and elemental—salt, snow, crows, cups, Bisquick, a shovel and rake, the ubiquitous can of WD-40, “the way / it releases the caught cogs / of the world”—Life on Earth urges us all to find extraordinary magic in the mess of ordinary life. “One of our most daring contemporary poets” (Diana Whitney, San Francisco Chronicle), Laux balances wonder at the night sky and the taste of a ripe peach with recognition of the sharp knife of mortality. The volume includes powerful homages to the poet’s mother and her carpenter’s spirit, reflections on loss and aging, and encounters with the fleeting beauty of the natural world. Transcending life’s inevitable moments of pain and uncertainty, Life on Earth instructs us in our own endless possibilities and the astonishing riches of the world around us.

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113

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

1324065834

ISBN 13

9781324065838

Smoke

By: Dorianne Laux

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Smoke

By: Dorianne Laux

Dorianne Laux’s long-awaited third book of poetry follows her collection, What We Carry, a finalist for the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. In Smoke, Laux revisits familiar themes of family, working class lives and the pleasures of the body in poetry that is vital and artfully crafted—poetry that "gets hard in the face of aloofness," in the words of one reviewer. In Smoke, as in her previous work, Laux weaves the warp and woof of ordinary lives into extraordinary and complex tapestries. In "The Shipfitter’s Wife," a woman recalls her husband’s homecoming at the end of his work day: Then I’d open his clothes and take the whole day inside me—the ship’s gray sides, the miles of copper pipe, the voice of the foreman clanging off the hull’s silver ribs. Spark of lead kissing metal. The clamp, the winch, the white fire of the torch, the whistle, and the long drive home. And in the title poem, Laux muses on her own guilty pleasures: Who would want to give it up, the coal a cat’s eye in the dark room, no one there but you and your smoke, the window cracked to street sounds, the distant cries of living things. Alone, you are almost safe . . . With her keen ear and attentive eye, Dorianne Laux offers us a universe with which we are familiar, but gives it to us fresh. Dorianne Laux is the author of two previous collections of poetry from BOA Editions, Ltd., and is co-author, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Joys of Writing Poetry (W.W. Norton, 1997), chosen as an alternate selection by several bookclubs. Laux was the judge for the 2012 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Contest, and is a tenured professor in the creative writing program at the University of Oregon. Laux lives in Eugene, Oregon.

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BOA Editions, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

193816038X

ISBN 13

9781938160387

The Book of Men: Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

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The Book of Men: Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

Laux writes gritty, tough, lyrical poems that depict the actual nature of life in the West today."—Philip Levine The narrative poems in Dorianne Laux's fifth collection charge through the summer of love, where Vietnam casts a long shadow, and into the present day, where she compassionately paints the smoky bars, graffiti, and addiction of urban life. Laux is "continually engaging and, at her best, luminous" (San Diego Union-Tribune). from "To Kiss Frank," make out with him a bit, this is what my friend would like to do oh these too many dead summers later, and as much as I want to stroll with her into the poet's hazy fancy all I can see is O'Hara's long gone lips fallen free of the bone, slumbering beneath the grainy soil.

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W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393080919

ISBN 13

9780393080919

Finger Exercises for Poets

By: Dorianne Laux

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Finger Exercises for Poets

By: Dorianne Laux

An illuminating book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets, from Pulitzer Prize finalist and The Poet’s Companion coauthor Dorianne Laux. From “a poet of immense insight and masterful craft” (Kwame Dawes), Finger Exercises for Poets is an engaging and inspiriting invitation to practice poetry alongside one of its masters. With wide-ranging examples from classic and contemporary poets, Dorianne Laux demystifies the magic of language that makes great poetry and offers generative exercises to harness that magic. She explores the syllable and the line, the use of form, poetic responses to contemporary events and personal experiences, the imaginative leap, and the power of a distinct voice. As she writes in the introduction, “My instrument is the immensity of language.… There are eighty-eight keys on a piano, six hundred thousand words in the English language. The patterns, sequences, and permutations of both are endless. For me, language is another kind of music.… I practice poetry. This book invites you to practice along with me.” Throughout, Laux reminds us that poetry is a practice as much as an art and that poets must hone their language as a musician practicing an instrument.

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Page Count

161

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

1324050675

ISBN 13

9781324050674

Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

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Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry “Clear, compelling and insightful.” —Washington Post Earthy and lyrical, Only as the Day Is Long draws from Dorianne Laux’s five expansive, award-winning volumes and includes twenty new odes that pay homage to the poet’s mother. Exploring experiences of survival and healing, of sexual love and celebration, Only as the Day Is Long represents a bold and brilliant body of work from a “poet of immense insight and masterful craft” (Kwame Dawes).

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201

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393652343

ISBN 13

9780393652345

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

By: Kim Addonizio,Dorianne Laux

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The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

By: Kim Addonizio,Dorianne Laux

Two accomplished poets and teachers offer a poetry primer that includes short essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and possible subjects for writing, along with writing exercises, tips on getting published, and examples of contemporary poetry.

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Page Count

290

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393316548

ISBN 13

9780393316544

Life on Earth: Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

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Life on Earth: Poems

By: Dorianne Laux

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113

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

1324065834

ISBN 13

9781324065838

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

By: Kim Addonizio,Dorianne Laux

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The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

By: Kim Addonizio,Dorianne Laux

From the nuts and bolts of craft to the sources of inspiration, this book is for anyone who wants to write poetry-and do it well. The Poet's Companion presents brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing, each followed by distinctive writing exercises. The ups and downs of writing life—including self-doubt and writer's block—are here, along with tips about getting published and writing in the electronic age. On your own, this book can be your "teacher," while groups, in or out of the classroom, can profit from sharing weekly assignments.

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