Sweet Theft

Praise for Sweet Theft “From his choice discoveries-by-quotation J.D. McClatchy has constructed a worldly, quick, literate amusement park or hall of wonders, enchanted by abrupt visions of reality.”–Robert Pinsky “Reading Sweet Theft is like having the world’s most erudite personal shopper.”– Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America and Bark Praise for J.D. McClatchy “… McClatchy continues to explore the connection between the spiritual and the corporeal, seeking “a desire as yet half-satisfied.” Though he reveres the past and pays tribute to his mentor, James Merrill, the largesse of these poems is the command over craft and language. McClatchy realizes that form and content do matter; what is being said is inherent in how it is being said…Throughout, McClatchy demonstrates a fine linguistic control…In the end, these poems come to represent our own lives, our own longings, our own “flag of surrender” to the spiritual. A brilliant testament to McClatchy’s place among American poets.” –Library Journal “Technically and emotionally sophisticated, McClatchy’s previous three collections (The Rest of the Way, etc.) drew readers in with their conversational brio, and rewarded them with a wisdom that was sad and compromising, sinned against and sinning. The same is true of his brilliant new collection–not least the sinning…The intimacy of these poems, taken together with their classical control and ironical self-knowledge, confirms McClatchy as one his generation’s brightest stars. –Publishers Weekly “Powerful … Given McClatchy’s formal virtuosity, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he jots his grocery lists down in terza rima, too.” –The New York Times Book Review “Although these poems lament the smarts and humiliations attendant on love and loss, they provoke the kind of wonder and joy we experience when the curtain comes down on a dazzling performance.” –The New Leader

J. D. McClatchy has published eight collections of poetry, most recently Plundered Hearts- New and Selected Poems. He is the author of three books of prose, and the editor of dozens of other books, including the influential Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry. Called by the New York Times “the dean of American opera librettists,” his work has been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala, the San Francisco Opera and other leading opera houses around the world. He teaches at Yale, where for twenty-five years he has also served as editor of The Yale Review.

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