Excerpts from the Notebooks of 26 American Poets

"This wonderfully instructive collection of journal writings, notebooks, jottings . . . , workbook fragments leads us into the corners of the mind where poetry hides."
Miami Herald

The Poet's Notebook brings together excerpts from the working notebooks of twenty-six American poets. Unsystematic, spontaneous, irreverent, intense, witty, unexpected, these notebooks shimmer with reflections, speculations, confessions, quotations, impressions, and ruminations. They create a portrait of the artist as a purposeful gatherer and sifter of every kind of experience.

Included are the notebooks from such distinguished and eclectic voices as Rita Dove, Stephen Dunn, Carolyn Forché, Donald Hall, Garrett Hongo, Joy Harjo, Donald Justice, Yusef Komunyakaa, James Merrill, Mary Oliver, Charles Simic, and William Stafford.

"This is the kind of book in which you'll want to underline a lot. There are good stories here, quirky observations on life and literature, jokes, wonderful quotes, and even passages of sensible advice and wisdom that will delight your grumpiest friends."—Charles Simic, from his preface to The Poet's Notebook

Deborah Tall and David Weiss teach at Hobart and William Smith colleges and live in Ithaca, New York. Stephen Kuusisto lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.