"Chard deNiord is master of the immersed conversation. Informed, curious, knowing when to contend and when to unbend, he meets each of his poets on the high ground of their art, and seduces from them their most closely-held wisdom. Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs is at once a schooling and a delight."

 

—Sven Birkerts

 

"Anyone who has read Chard deNiord's interviews as they first appeared in American Poetry Review and AGNI knows that he has conducted the most interesting and perceptive conversations with these seven major contemporary poets to appear in print. Added to them in this collection are three wise and readable essays on James Wright, Philip Levine and Elizabeth Bishop/Robert Lowell. It's a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in recent American literature."

 

—Ed Ochester

 

"I think it's Chard deNiord's intelligence and empathy as a questioner which help his subjects--some of our best-known and most-respected senior poets--seem to make discoveries about themselves before our eyes. This collection of interviews about what it is to live and think as a poet, along with lucid critical essays, make for a very useful and also very lovely book."

 

—Daisy Fried

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