Edited by Lisa Alvarez, and introduced by long-time poetry director and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Robert Hass, “Why to These Rocks” tells part of the story of the Community of Writers through work produced in the valley by both staff and participant poets, using three self-explanatory lenses: Over the Mountains: Poems about the Place; Scrupulous Mercy: Poems about the Process; and After Surfacing: Poems Produced by the Process in the Place.

Contributors include both workshop staff and participants, among them Kazim Ali, Don Mee Choi, Lucille Clifton, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Cornelius Eady, Juan Felipe Herrera, Brenda Hillman, Cathy Park Hong, Forrest Gander, Major Jackson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Harryette Mullen, Sharon Olds, Greg Pardlo, Evie Shockley, Al Young, Kevin Young, Matthew Zapruder, a never-before-published poem by Galway Kinnell, and many more.

This collection will begin to answer the question posed by Kinnell in his poem “The Old Moon” and paraphrased here: Why to these rocks do we return? It speaks to the special community nurtured in this stunning setting, one that has inspired poets worldwide – many of whom developed significant bodies of award-winning work in its creative and generative atmosphere.

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The Community of Writers, formerly the “Community of Writers at Squaw Valley,” was founded over five decades ago by California writers Blair Fuller and Oakley Hall, who wished to foster a literary culture in the West that would be conversant with the publishing establishment of the East Coast. Galway Kinnell reenvisioned the Poetry program as new kind of workshop, where only new work was discussed, and poets were free to try anything in their work.

Book details: https://heydaybooks.com/why-to-these-rocks/

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Source: Community of Writers