Appalachia Poems

Almost thirty years ago, Charles Wright (who teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Poetry) began a poetic project of astonishing scope--a series of three trilogies. The first trilogy was collected inCountry Music, the second inThe World of the Ten Thousand Things, and the third began withChickamaugaand continued withBlack Zodiac.Appalachiais the last book in the final trilogy of this pathbreaking and majestic series. IfCountry Musictraced "Wright's journey from the soil to the stars" andThe World of the Ten Thousand Things"lovingly detailed" our world and made "a visionary map of the world beyond" (James Longenbach,The Nation), this final book in Wright's great work reveals a master's confrontation with his own mortality and his stunning ability to discover transcendence in the most beautifully ordinary of landscapes. Charles Wrightwas awarded the National Book Award in Poetry in 1983 forCountry Musicand the 1995 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize forChickamauga. In 2008, he was honored for his lifetime achievement with the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry. He teaches at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. Almost thirty years ago, Charles Wrightwinner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Poetrybegan a poetic project of astonishing scope: a series of three trilogies. The first trilogy was collected inCountry Music, the second inThe World of the Ten Thousand Things, and the third began withChickamaugaand continued withBlack Zodiac.Appalachiais the last book in the final trilogy of this pathbreaking and majestic series. IfCountry Musictraced "Wright's journey from the soil to the stars" andThe World of the Ten Thousand Things"lovingly detailed" our world and made "a visionary map of the world beyond" (James Longenbach,The Nation), this final book in Wright's great work reveals a master's confrontation with his own mortality and his stunning ability to discover transcendence in the most beautifully ordinary of landscapes. "Has any other American poet been writing as beautifully and daringly over the past twenty-five years as Charles Wright? Possibly. But I cannot imagine who it would be . . . [Wright] plumbs our deepest relationships with nature, time, love, death, creation."Philip Levine,American Poetcitation for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize "In an age of casual faithlessness, Wright successfully reconstitutes the provocative tension between belief and materialism."Albert Mobilio,The Village Voice "A significant and true reflection of our time."Adam Kirsch,The New York Times Book Review "A culmination of his career . . .Appalachiashows again why Wright is generally considered one of America's leading poets."Harold Branam,Magill's Literary Annual "Wright, recipient of numerous prestigious literary prizes, is a philosopher-poet with a gift for gloriously whimsical imagery and a keen sense of the ephemeral. His inquisitive poems reside at the crux of faith and art. . . . In bright leaping lines reminiscent of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a kindred spirit also enthralled by nature yet keenly aware of our isolation from it, Wright tries to connect with the spiritual by conjuring the ancient beaming of stars, winter's starkness, and the valor of flowers. Finally, in sweet, bemused surrender, he acknowledges both the impossibility of certainty, and our insatiable hunger for it."Donna Seaman,Booklist

Charles Wright was awarded the National Book Award in Poetry in 1983 for Country Music and the 1995 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Chickamauga. He teaches at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.