Poetry

(Praise for the first edition)

With Poetry: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology, it is as if Huey and Kaneko have been looking over my shoulder at my class notes and have built a streamlined textbook specifically to meet my needs. Collected in one volume are chapters of practical advice and explanation about poetic elements (including a periodic table!), along with an amazing, truly up-to-date anthology of example poems. Most appropriate for students new to poetry, this book will serve as a solid review text for more advanced students as well.

* Sandy Longhorn, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Arkansas Writers MFA Program, University of Central Arkansas, USA *
For a while now, many of us have seen the need to redefine – and hopefully to reinvigorate – the teaching of poetry writing. Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko, by stressing “practice rather than interpretation,” have made a poetry writing textbook that dances in the mind, even as it takes all of us back to the pleasure and hard work of our art. They are generous with the “elements” of poetry that animate their own teaching. Their illustrative anthology at the end may be the best collection of “contemporary classic” poems currently available. This is a book we – all of us, from beginners to wizened masters – could use in the classroom or simply sit down and read. * Keith Taylor, A.L. Becker Collegiate Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, University of Michigan, USA *
“Write a poem for your future self to find,” cajole Huey and Kaneko, the editors of this accessible and generative textbook, the first in a long time to be a great poetry primer, a fine anthology, and a useful encyclopedia. Elements, modes, images, surprise – the concepts and their applications are all here, detailed and methodically presented, the clear writing always a pleasure. Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology should be the go-to book for teachers and students alike, all of whom may well be writing to find their future selves. * Alan Michael Parker, Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English, Davidson College, USA *
A perfect combination of informative textbook, practical manual, and inspirational anthology. In a lively and accessible style, Huey and Kaneko introduce the genre of poetry and offer sage advice on the writing workshop. Aspiring poets and their mentors will return again and again to the book’s two A–Z sections: ‘The Elements of Poetry’, an indispensable reference resource; and ‘An Anthology of Contemporary Poetic Modes’, an irresistible compendium of illustrative examples. * Peter Blair, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Chester, UK *
This book makes writing poetry fun—not easy, as Huey and Kaneko caution—but fun because poetry delights, pivots, puns, and plays, inspiring us to read and observe this sparkling world with our senses and mark it with our pens. Amorak and Todd obviously had a blast writing this. You will have a blast reading it—and write some incredible poems to boot. * Nicole Walker, Editor of Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction *
Remember that friend you had, who knew all the cool stuff and loved to share it with you so that you also were getting smarter, more aware, worldlier, cooler, too–even though you mostly were just hanging out and having a blast? Energetic and gracious, lively and companionable, this book is that kind of friend. * Michael Theune, Professor of English, Illinois Wesleyan University, USA *

Amorak Huey teaches creative writing at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA. He is author of four books of poetry, including Dad Jokes from Late in the Patriarchy (2021). He is co-founding editor of River River Books; he and W. Todd Kaneko also collaborated on the chapbook Slash/Slash (2021).

W. Todd Kaneko teaches creative writing at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA. A Kundiman fellow, he is the author of the poetry books This Is How the Bone Sings (2020) and The Dead Wrestler Elegies, Championship Edition (2023) and co-author with Amorak Huey of the chapbook Slash/Slash (2021).