Drinks With Dead Poets

A spirited homage to the departed literary greats—set in an entrancing English village—this novel tells the tale of a profound autumn term with Poe, Yeats, Whitman, Dickinson, and the Brontës.

“I am walking along a country lane with no earthly idea why . . .”

Poet Glyn Maxwell wakes up in a mysterious village one autumn day. He has no idea how he got there—is he dead? In a coma? Dreaming?—but he has a strange feeling there’s a class to teach. And isn’t that the poet Keats wandering down the lane? Why not ask him to give a reading, do a Q and A, hit the pub with the students afterwards?

Soon the whole of the autumn term stretches ahead, with Byron, Yeats and Emily Dickinson, the Brontës, the Brownings, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Wilfred Owen, and many more all on their way to give readings in the humble village hall.

And everything these famed personalities say—in class, on stage, at the Cross Keys pub—comes verbatim from these poets’ diaries, essays, or letters. A dreamy novel of a profound autumn term with Poe, Yeats, Whitman, Dickinson, and the Brontës.

Glyn Maxwell is one of Britain's major poets. His plays include The Lifeblood, After Troy, and The Only Girl in the World. His novel Blue Burneau was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize. His opera libretti include The Lion's Face, The Firework Maker's Daughter, Seven Angels, and Nothing. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia, and New York University, and he reviews poetry for the New York Times. He is the author of One Thousand Nights and Counting: Selected Poems, as well as the recently published On Poetry, which considers the art form through the eyes of four imaginary students. Their journeys continue in Drinks With Dead Poets.