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A unique collection of eleven poems, each quite different from the next, Elegies & Vacations explores the relationships of the living and the dead. Lazer's poems have an unusual emotional intimacy as he tests the ability of an experimental poetry to address emotionally charged subjects such as the loss of a loved one and the vexing ritual of the family vacation.
List of contents
- "to what are we ancestral"
- Portrait
- Every Now & Then
- For John Cage
- Deathwatch for My Father
- that pantheon
- The Abacos
- Work Ups
- This One
- Diamond Head
- Sunyata Sonata
About the author
Hank Lazer has published twenty-two books of poetry, including Poems Hidden in Plain View (2016, in English and in French), N24 (2014) and N18 (2012), Portions (2009), The New Spirit (2005), Elegies & Vacations (2004), and Days (2002). Selected Poems and Essays of Hank Lazer, completed by a group of translators and with a Preface by Nie Zhenzao, was published by Central China Normal University Press in 2015. Lazer's Selected Poems have also been published in Italy and will be appearing shortly in Cuba. In 2015, Lazer was selected to receive Alabama's most prestigious literary prize, the Harper Lee Award, for lifetime achievement in literature. His books of criticism include Opposing Poetries (two volumes, 1996) and Lyric & Spirit: Selected Essays 1996-2008 (2008). With Charles Bernstein, he edits the Modern and Contemporary Poetics Series for the University of Alabama Press. Lazer retired from the University of Alabama in January 2014 from his positions as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Executive Director of Creative Campus, and Professor of English.
