{"title":"Dorianne Laux","description":"Dorianne Laux was born in 1952 in Augusta, Maine and is of Irish, French and Algonquin Indian heritage. In 1983 she moved to Berkeley, California where she began writing in earnest. Five years later she earned her B.A. degree in English from Mills College. Laux's first book of poems, Awake, published by BOA Editions in 1990, was nominated for the San Francisco Bay Area Book Critics Award for Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in numerous American journals and anthologies. She has received poetry fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, she teaches creative writing at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.","products":[{"product_id":"the-poets-companion-a-guide-to-the-pleasures-of-writing-poetry-paperback","title":"The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Poet's Companion\u003c\/em\u003e presents brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing, each followed by distinctive writing exercises. The ups and downs of writing life--including self-doubt and writer's block--are here, along with tips about getting published and writing in the electronic age. On your own, this book can be your \"teacher,\" while groups, in or out of the classroom, can profit from sharing weekly assignments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376117678303,"sku":"9780393316544","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/1dzdRrhPAt9780393316544.webp?v=1789214235"},{"product_id":"book-of-men-paperback","title":"Book of Men - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDorianne Laux's fifth collection of poetry peels back time to the summer of love and the Vietnam War. Her keen hindsight uncovers the humanity at the center of conflict with language that goes straight to the heart. This work stands as an elegy for the loss of innocence, an homage to the glimmer underneath the urban grunge, and a love song to the imperfections that unite and divide us. Laux possesses what Tony Hoagland calls \"the brave art of looking,\" with an immediate and compassionate touch.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378171543775,"sku":"9780393342659","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/ChQkYYQK7n9780393342659.webp?v=1789250765"},{"product_id":"what-we-carry-paperback","title":"What We Carry - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eFinalist, 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Dorianne Laux's poetry is a poetry of risk; it goes to the very edge of extinction to find the hard facts that need to be sung. \u003ci\u003eWhat We Carry\u003c\/i\u003e includes poems of survival, poems of healing, poems of affirmation and poems of celebration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDorianne Laux's poetry is a poetry of risk; it goes to the very edge of extinction to find the hard facts that need to be sung. What We Carry includes poems of survival, poems of healing, poems of affirmation and poems of celebration. Sculptured, fluid and generous, they reveal a poet whose vision is informed by experience and caring. Of her poetry and poetic odyssey, critic William O'Daly writes: \"It seems that Ms. Laux has chosen to witness what she must on her journey, in some way reliving and weaving together who she was and who she is to fully reclaim her body and soul ... The poems seem to have been well prepared for, born of years of hard work, careful listening, patience, until all the notes rang true\". That attention to precision of image, language and sound, that pursuit of honesty and love is What We Carry - our lives, worth having, and worth transforming.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378322047199,"sku":"9781880238073","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/SxLnz82e5D9781880238073.webp?v=1789254396"},{"product_id":"life-on-earth-poems-paperback","title":"Life on Earth: Poems - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn her seventh collection, Dorianne Laux once again offers poems that move us, include us, and appreciate us fully as the flawed humans we are. \u003cem\u003eLife on Earth\u003c\/em\u003e is a book of praise for our planet and ourselves, delivered with Laux's trademark vitality, frank observation, and earthy wisdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith odes to the unlikely and elemental--salt, snow, crows, cups, Bisquick, a shovel and rake, the ubiquitous can of WD-40, \"the way \/ it releases the caught cogs \/ of the world\"--\u003cem\u003eLife on Earth\u003c\/em\u003e urges us all to find extraordinary magic in the mess of ordinary life. \"One of our most daring contemporary poets\" (Diana Whitney, \u003cem\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/em\u003e), Laux balances wonder at the night sky and the taste of a ripe peach with recognition of the sharp knife of mortality. The volume includes powerful homages to the poet's mother and her carpenter's spirit, reflections on loss and aging, and encounters with the fleeting beauty of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTranscending life's inevitable moments of pain and uncertainty, \u003cem\u003eLife on Earth\u003c\/em\u003e instructs us in our own endless possibilities and the astonishing riches of the world around us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003ePraise for Dorianne Laux\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Dorianne Laux [writes] about love and violence, survival and grief, in poems that are clear, compelling and insightful.... [She] shows us how to endure hardships without losing humanity and compassion.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Elizabeth Lund, \u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Beyond her admirable tenacity and spirit, Laux is just plain wise--and refreshingly unpretentious in her wisdom.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Jonathan Russell Clark, \u003cem\u003eVulture\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Throughout the years...Dorianne Laux has not faltered. She has wrestled with the angels and with the serpents; Eros and Thanatos are wrestling still, and the sound they make is the sound of this woman singing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Marie Howe, author of \u003cem\u003eNew and Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eMagdalene\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[Dorianne Laux is] one of our best, who never stops paying attention, and is never unwilling, and summons from her readers unwavering trust.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Mark Doty, author of \u003cem\u003eDeep Lane\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Dorianne Laux is one of those poets I turn to again and again for cradling beauty and darkness so close together in a poem.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of \u003cem\u003eBite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The poetry of Dorianne Laux is essential.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Nick Flynn, author of \u003cem\u003eLow\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A prodigious imagination that somehow manages to sift through the ordinary, quotidian, and squalid realities of our world, to produce moments of grace and shimmering beauty, and empathetic illumination. Dorianne Laux is a national treasure, a poet of immense insight and masterful craft.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Kwame Dawes, author of \u003cem\u003eSturge Town\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In a vast ocean of too-much-to-read out there, I can always find an island of sanity in Laux's work, and within individual poems, always, always spots of light and breath and truth.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Lia Purpura, author of \u003cem\u003eAll the Fierce Tethers\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378509709535,"sku":"9781324110354","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/bE04guLM5F9781324110354.webp?v=1789257937"},{"product_id":"finger-exercises-for-poets-paperback","title":"Finger Exercises for Poets - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom \"a poet of immense insight and masterful craft\" (Kwame Dawes), \u003cem\u003eFinger Exercises for Poets\u003c\/em\u003e is an engaging and inspiriting invitation to practice poetry alongside one of its masters. With wide-ranging examples from classic and contemporary poets, Dorianne Laux demystifies the magic of language that makes great poetry and offers generative exercises to harness that magic. She explores the syllable and the line, the use of form, poetic responses to contemporary events and personal experiences, the imaginative leap, and the power of a distinct voice. As she writes in the introduction, \"My instrument is the immensity of language.... There are eighty-eight keys on a piano, six hundred thousand words in the English language. The patterns, sequences, and permutations of both are endless. For me, language is another kind of music.... I practice poetry. This book invites you to practice along with me.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThroughout, Laux reminds us that poetry is a practice as much as an art and that poets must hone their language as a musician practicing an instrument.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eFrom the introduction to \u003cem\u003eFinger Exercises for Poets\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I often think about how my mother instilled this kind of discipline in me at an early age: art as practice at mastery, worthy of our time and focus. My instrument is the immensity of language, the techniques and effects of crafting images, shaping sound and rhythm, creating new combinations with the single notes of words, each colliding or coming together, meshing or crashing, standing firm or tumbling. There are eighty-eight keys on a piano, six hundred thousand words in the English language. The patterns, sequences and permutations of both are endless. For me, language is another kind of music. I practice poetry. This book invites you to practice along with me.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51386461487327,"sku":"9781324050667","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/fgItvfLodO9781324050667.webp?v=1789358444"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/dorianne-laux.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}