Books by David St. John

The Auroras: New Poems

by David St. John

“David St. John's work has been distinguished from the start by its intimacy and subtlety, and by a disturbing force, the work of an urgent sensibility and a true ear.” —W. S. Merwin

This long-awaited collection from David St. John is the most provocative, adventurous, and stylistically eclectic work of his career. The beauty, music, and artistry of David St. John’s poetry have been long admired; now The Auroras reveals the extent and breadth of this masterful poetic achievement. Readers of Larry Levis, Dana Gioia, and Phillip Levine will be captivated by this searing, surprising, and sensual collection from one of the world’s greatest poets writing at the height of his talent and insight.

American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry

by David St. John, Cole Swensen

This spirited anthology of contemporary American poetry focuses on the new poem--the hybrid--a synthesis of traditional and experimental styles. As Cole Swensen argues in the introduction to this comprehensive new anthology, the long-acknowledged "fundamental division" between experimental and traditional is disappearing in American poetry in favor of hybrid approaches that blend trends from accessible lyricism to linguistic exploration. The focus in American Hybrid is on the blend; the more than seventy poets featured here--including Jorie Graham, Albert Goldbarth, and Lyn Hejinian--have found new and often unique ways to reconfigure the innumerable and sometimes conflicting voices of the past thirty years. The editors have crafted short introductory essays on each of the poets in the anthology, providing biographical backgrounds and positioning them within the current of contemporary poetry. This new anthology is essential reading for those who care about the present moment--and the future--of American verse. 3

The Gazer Within (Poets On Poetry)

by David St. John, James Marshall, Andrew Miller, Larry Levis, John Venable

The Gazer Within collects the prose of one of America's favorite poets. Refreshingly candid, laugh-out-loud funny, and, at the same time, intimate, the pieces trace Larry Levis's early years growing up on his father's farm, his decision at sixteen to become a poet, and his undergraduate experience in the days of the Vietnam War. In addition to memoir, there are critical reviews, including his seminal essay on the poet Philip Levine, and reviews of poets as diverse as W. D. Snodgrass and Zbigniew Herbert.
David St. John's foreword speaks eloquently of Levis's enduring legacy: "Of the poets of his generation, Larry Levis spoke most powerfully of what it means to be a poet at this historical moment. With the same majesty he brought to his poetry, Larry Levis engaged his readers with the most subtle and disturbing questions of the self to be found in the prose--essays, reviews or interviews--of any contemporary American poet. Broadly international in his scope and deeply personal in his reflections, Levis addressed poetic concerns that are both immediate and timeless. For many of us who struggle with these issues, Larry Levis's prose on poetry stands as some of the most capacious to be found since Randell Jarrell's."
The late Larry Levis was the author of six volumes of poetry. He was Director of the Creative Writing Program, University of Utah; Professor of English, Virginia Commonwealth University; and also taught at the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Prism

by Faye Kellerman, David St. John

A time-shattering supernatural thriller
Aida Hutchenson, Zeke Anderson, and Joy Tallon: three teens with nothing in common, thrown together by an explosive accident that turns their class trip into a desert nightmare. And the next morning . . . a return to their ordinary lives with everything just as it was before. Or is it? Increasingly unnerved by the distorted world around her, Kaida must band together with Zeke and Joy in hopes of making it back to the reality she remembers . . . and surviving the one she's fallen into.
New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman teams up for the first time with her teen daughter, Aliza Kellerman, to deliver this breathlessly suspenseful paranormal thriller.

Prism

by Faye Kellerman, David St. John

Poetry. This book of new poems by David St. John includes fourteen vibrant photographs by Lance Patigian. One of the finest poetic craftsmen of his generation, David St. John has recevied regular and lavish praise from his contemporaries. Speaking of his poetry, Robert Hass has said, "It is not just gorgeous, it is go-for-broke gorgeous. It is made out of sentences, sweeping through and across his meticulous verse stanzas, that could have been written, for their velvet and intricate suavity, by Henry James. But that doesn't quite describe them, since they are also full, almost past ripeness, of a floating, sometimes painful, sometimes wistful, intense, dark and silvery eroticism that feels as if it comes out of some cross between late nineteeth-century symbolist lushness--vague and specific at once--and the kind of '60s and '70s European film that talked about eroticism with a wistfulness so intense that it seemed experience and the melancholy recollection of experience were the same th

The Last Troubadour New and Selected Poems

by David St. John

A haunting and intimately observed new collection from David St. John, a poet of soaring imagination and passionate candor

In The Last Troubadour, David St. John has given us a collection of new and selected poems of astonishing beauty, precise and keenly observed but also touched with sensuality and deep feeling. Nothing is too small to escape notice (in “Guitar” St. John reflects on the beauty of that word) or too large to be explored-the suicide of a friend, the illness of a lover, or the texture of longing and desire. A sharp observer of landscapes within and without, St. John directs his empathetic gaze and vivid, inventive voice to investigating both the darkest and the most inspiring parts of being human, the small moments between friends and lovers as well as the groundswells that alter lives.

 At times lyrical, sometimes conversational, occasionally wry and playful, St. John’s poetry reveals an expansive vision animated by “intimacy and subtlety, and by a disturbing force, the work of an urgent sensibility and a true ear.” (W.S. Merwin) The beauty, music, and artistry of David St. John’s widely admired work is fully on display in this masterful collection.

In the Pines

by David St. John

"St. John's work has been distinguished by its intimacy and subtlety, an urgent sensibility and a true ear."—W. S. Merwin
"Expressive, gestural, and image-laden, St. John's lines fairly hum with the pleasure of their making."—The New Yorker
"Like the films of Godard and Rohmer, David St. John's poems evoke cryptic encounters in an ultramodern, often European setting."—John Ashbery
David St. John has been considered one of the most accomplished and innovative of all American poets. Here he gathers poems that first appeared in limited edition chapbooks and uncollected work. Spanning twenty-five years, the work refects the progression of a major voice in American letters.

The Last Troubadour: New and Selected Poems

by David St. John

A haunting and intimately observed new collection from David St. John, a poet of soaring imagination and passionate candor

In The Last Troubadour, David St. John has given us a collection of new and selected poems of astonishing beauty, precise and keenly observed but also touched with sensuality and deep feeling. Nothing is too small to escape notice (in “Guitar” St. John reflects on the beauty of that word) or too large to be explored-the suicide of a friend, the illness of a lover, or the texture of longing and desire. A sharp observer of landscapes within and without, St. John directs his empathetic gaze and vivid, inventive voice to investigating both the darkest and the most inspiring parts of being human, the small moments between friends and lovers as well as the groundswells that alter lives.

At times lyrical, sometimes conversational, occasionally wry and playful, St. John’s poetry reveals an expansive vision animated by “intimacy and subtlety, and by a disturbing force, the work of an urgent sensibility and a true ear.” (W.S. Merwin) The beauty, music, and artistry of David St. John’s widely admired work is fully on display in this masterful collection.