Anvil Press catalogue

I've recieved a copy of Anvil Press' catalogue through the post: presumably they got my details from the Poetry Book Society. I'm pleased they did and not just because I'm all in favour of poetry publishers doing a bit of marketing. It's an attractive catalogue which, thanks to the example poems for each entry, also makes a rather nice little anthology.

There were several books that stood out to me. Michael Hamburger's Circling The Square was one. It's his final collection of poems and it'd be interesting to see what someone who dedicated so much of his life's work to translation chose to focus on in a late flowering. He's definitely one of those people that I think of as 'servants of literature': the people without whom literature wouldn't be the same, whether or not they recieved the limelight themselves.

Another was James Harpur, with his collection The Dark Age. He's not someone I know anything about (though I'm intrigued to see he's got a translation from Boethius in the catalogue as well). He sounds like a serious-minded religious poet, a type which can be surprising ly enjoyable to read, even as an agnostic (Ian Pople and Goeffrey Hill are two others who I'd describe that way).

And then a Collected Poems by someone who I'd recently been recommended, by a friend whose judgement I can always trust: Donald Justice. I hadn't realised that (so the catalogue informs me) he owed a debt to Wallace Stevens: I think I've heard him described more as an American Larkin (should such a thing be possible!). Anyhow, his name seems to come up more and more and I'm sure would be well worth a read.

There was something neat and striking about the two examples for Julian Turner's Orphan Sites, too. It would be interesting to see the effect of these shorter pieces within a longer collection; whether they would seem glib, or start to take on a greater depth and freight.

Finally, The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry looks like being one of those useful monument anthologies that help set the landscape. I'd also like some more orientation around Chinese poetry, having enjoyed various scattered gems that I've read. Perhaps a book like this would help me put them into some sort of context. Odd seeing 'Jade-Staircase Grievance' in the catalogue, having long enjoyed Pound's more famous translation of it 'The Jewelled Stairs Grievance'.

There's clearly lots in the catalogue to enjoy: I wonder when I'll have the time to read it all though?