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Distributed for Carnegie Mellon University Press

As If

New edition

A reissue of a celebrated collection of poems from James Richardson.

James Richardson’s poems concern humor, paradox, and nuanced perception of human interaction As If was originally selected by Amy Clampitt and published as part of the National Poetry Series. In Clampitt’s words: “To discover a vocabulary and a syntax equal in precision to the micron and the nanosecond: such is the enterprise James Richardson calls on his readers to join . . .”

80 pages | 5 1/2 x 9 1/4 | © 1992

Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporary Poetry Series

Poetry


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Reviews

"Richardson is one of the finest poets now writing, and the best contemporary practitioner of the art of aphorism...."

Publishers Weekly, Starred review of By the Numbers, September 20, 2010

"Scientific as Marianne Moore, philosophical as Wallace Stevens, and mysterious as a Zen master, Richardson has stayed the course, impervious to literary fashion, servant only to his unique angle of vision."

Poetry International 10, review of Interglacial, 2006

"Richardson is one of our most philosophical poets, a staggeringly accomplished artist, and yet mostly unappreciated. The classical balance of his lines, the restrained beauty of his imagery, the quiet and consistent tone, and the fierce intelligence of it all remind one of Virgil's Eclogues. Nor is the new work here any less accomplished than the old. Richardson is a poets' poet, someone to study closely, meditate upon, commit to memory."

Cold Mountain Review, review of Interglacial, 2005

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