Ungrafted - (Southern Messenger Poets) by Claudia Emerson

About the Book

"The poetry of Claudia Emerson is marked by a precise, evocative handling of subjects drawn from her upbringing in the rural South yet recognizable to readers across cultures: complicated family histories, the eccentricities of place, the frustrations of illness, the pleasures of language and environment. Speakers drawn from history and local settings recount narratives of loss, struggle, and perseverance. The natural world glistens with beauty and vitality. Cancer overtakes the body, producing a suspended state of existence. Everyday objects suggest universal truths and mysteries. Ungrafted offers more than two dozen previously uncollected poems left in manuscript at the time of Emerson's death, alongside generous selections from all her previous books. Assembled by her longtime editor Dave Smith, Ungrafted adds a final volume to the legacy of the writer described by the Richmond Times-Dispatch as 'one of the most honored, decorated, and revered poets in Virginia history'"--

Book Synopsis

The poetry of Claudia Emerson is marked by a precise, evocative handling of subjects drawn from her upbringing in the rural South yet recognizable to readers across cultures: complicated family histories, the eccentricities of place, the frustrations of illness, the pleasures of language and environment. Speakers drawn from history and local settings recount narratives of loss, struggle, and perseverance. The natural world glistens with beauty and vitality. Cancer overtakes the body, producing a suspended state of existence. Everyday objects suggest universal truths and mysteries.

Ungrafted offers more than two dozen previously uncollected poems left in manuscript at the time of Emerson's death, alongside generous selections from all her previous books. Assembled by her longtime editor Dave Smith, Ungrafted adds a final volume to the legacy of the writer described by the Richmond Times-Dispatch as "one of the most honored, decorated, and revered poets in Virginia history."

Review Quotes

"A talent that, despite the Pulitzer, hasn't received its due."--William Logan, New Criterion

"Smart, intense, satisfying, and approachable."--Newsweek

"The sustained quality of her accomplishment, poem by poem, is rare."--Georgia Review

"Through careful attention to place, the rhythms of speech, and the patterns of a life, Emerson's poems achieve a living form on the page."--Harvard Review

About the Author

Claudia Emerson's poetry collections include Late Wife, Figure Studies, Secure the Shadow, and The Opposite House. Before her death in 2014, she was professor of English and a member of the creative writing faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University. Emerson served as poet laureate of Virginia and won numerous awards for teaching and writing, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.