Swirl & Vortex - by Larry Levis (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

All the blazingly original work by Larry Levis, "one of the greatest poets of a generation" (Carolyn Forché)

The poetry of Larry Levis increasingly occupies a legendary place of reverence among poets and readers--the spell of his reputation only continuing to widen in the thirty years since his death. From the briefer lyrics and deep image-making of his early books to the long sequences and operatic narratives of his last works, Levis's poems have an unmistakable signature, a way of expressing the sweep of history, perception, and heartbreak. Over his career, his poetic lines broadened to accommodate the cinematic aperture of his observations on American empire, poverty, landscape, migrant workers, political violence, addiction, and art. Levis's expansive poems came to resemble the interconnecting patterns just discernible in the eddies of a stream or the leaves circling in a wind.

Swirl & Vortex at last makes all of Levis's poetry available in one definitive volume. This collection includes the five books published in Levis's lifetime, a brilliant reconfiguration of Levis's posthumous books, and unpublished late poems, edited and with an afterword by David St. John. To trace Levis's poetic development into his extraordinary "late style of fire"--cut short by his early death--is one of the singular experiences in contemporary poetry. Swirl & Vortex is an essential collection by one of the great poets of the end of the twentieth century, and a transformative work spiraling out toward our future.

Review Quotes

"A towering body of work by one of the great American poets of the 20th century. . . . A staggering achievement of style entwined with worldview, as humane and attentive to people and other creatures of nature as John Berger, as complex in their philosophy as Hegel by way of Stevens."--Elisa Gabbert, The New York Times Book Review

"This monumental collection of past and previously unseen work invites readers to appreciate the full sweep of Levis's melancholy and spellbinding imagination. Rich in narrative, his poems deliver resonant glimpses into ordinary lives and failures while quietly confirming the consolations of language."--Publishers Weekly, "Best Poetry of 2026"

"This monumental volume of Levis's collected works is a study in the development and deepening of his gifts. . . . It's an essential celebration of a poet of tremendous power."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Necessary for every poetry library . . . as reference, tour, and, as bonus, touching document of the depths of poetic friendships."--Literary Hub, "Most Anticipated Poetry of 2026"

"There is no poet I've reread more than Larry Levis . . . a personal as well as a public poet, deep-image yet cerebral, a confessionalist and a surrealist. His lines and sections sprawl, yet there's a tight tension, a flammable friction between his line breaks, woven narratives, motifs, and juxtapositions. His poems are somber and contrite, yet at times they can be funny as hell, too."--Jacques J. Rancourt, Poetry

"[Levis] wrote about strained family relationships and failed love; about death and landscape (and the death of landscapes); about regular people like you and me. When I read his poems about loneliness or grief, I feel recognized. And when his poems reach for beauty, my spirit soars."--David Roderick, The Adroit Journal

"Levis [is] not just a great poet but also a crucial one."--David L. Ulin, Alta Journal

"A fitting tribute to Levis's career . . . [and] a worthy offering for admirers and new readers alike."--Alta Journal

"Poems survive not just because they hold memorable lines, or a signature style, but also because they teach us to remember, and even to rethink. I think of Larry Levis, one of the tricksters of American poetry, as legendary rather than canonized, held in song and story by his admirers."--Katie Peterson, Los Angeles Review of Books

"The publication of Swirl & Vortex is a major event. To have all of Levis's work, from his early brief imagist poems to the grandly constructed cathedrals of his final elegies, much of it out of print for many years, is something to celebrate."--Kristofer Collins, Pittsburgh Review of Books

"Despite his lyrical genius and mythic poems . . . Levis still risks saying things plainly without any false promise of transcendence. . . . [He is] a literary hero who is only heroic because he's come back to tell us the awful truth: nothing will keep us alive and nothing will make it better."--Ada Limón

"The voyage through this expansive volume will change you, change what you know a poem to be. . . . Levis's mastery intensifies from book to book like a thundercloud whose purples deepen and expand until it fills with lightning. . . . I forget there is any other kind of poetry, any other poetry at all."--Diane Seuss

"Here, at long last, is Larry Levis's entire oeuvre in one gorgeous and thoughtfully curated volume. The apostle's gospels, chapter and verse. Swirl & Vortex. For all of us longtime acolytes, I'm overjoyed; of those reading Levis for the first time, I'm jealous."--John Murillo

"What Larry Levis has meant to me feels endless. He has never stopped teaching me--not since that first lucky encounter. . . . Levis's collected poems are capacious and spellbinding, and they grow larger with each reading. Swirl & Vortex is a cosmos."--Terrance Hayes

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