VINCENT KATZ is the author of the poetry collections Southness (2016) and Swimming Home (2015) and of the book of translations, The Complete Elegies of Sextus Propertius (2004), which won a National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association. He is the editor of Black Mountain College- Experiment in Art (2002), and his writing on contemporary art and poetry has appeared in publications such as Apollo, Art in America, ARTnews, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Poetry Project Newsletter. As curator of the "Readings in Contemporary Poetry" series at Dia- Chelsea, Katz also edited the anthology Readings in Contemporary Poetry (Dia Art Foundation, 2017). He lives in New York City.
“A mature and accomplished collection . . . A voice in the grand
tradition of New York poetry, from Walt Whitman to Frank O’Hara,
engaging in ‘equable’ conversation (Whitman’s term) with the city’s
people and places . . . Poetic comradeship is at the heart of one
of Katz’s tours-de-force in the collection, ‘Lincoln Plaza,’ where
optimism emerges as an essential ingredient for life . . . [Pushes]
the reader to often arresting conclusions, encompassing
ever-growing human and spatial relationships.” —Paul Vangelisti,
Los Angeles Review of Books
“Often matter-of-fact in tone, stripped of rococo embellishment or
flowery pretense, these poem-objects by poet, art writer and
translator Vincent Katz stand as testimony to keen observance and
thoughtful assessment . . . [Katz] denotes the connective tissue we
share not only with the seen but the experienced as well.” —Greg
Masters, Sensitive Skin
“The poet shows his hometown from many different vantage
points—always with a sense of love and subtle astonishment . . .
Katz pushes one mood against another and turns abruptly from shadow
to light . . . [Broadway for Paul] is like a good conversation, in
which you listen with care to the possibilities language affords.”
—Neeli Cherkovski, periodicities
“A wedding bouquet is tossed and we can’t see who the recipient is,
yet the poems you read here are permissive, grateful, it’s the
detail itself exploring, the foot on the edge of the river, the eye
too, the man walking, standing, lyric love for manyness, and
“suddenly I have x-ray vision, as Rudy said” and Vincent has
history, anyone, everyone’s view, and a thirst for justice, public
love and blue parks. I love the vibrant cinematic hunger of this
book, its urbanity, yours and mine too.” —Eileen Myles
“We need this book. At a time when the world’s cultures seem to be
closing up on themselves, Vincent Katz emphasizes the pleasure of
sharing spaces, ideas, and art. His vision is generous and
panoramic, with an eye toward detail and the abstract compositional
beauty of crowds in motion and at rest, his style a combination of
classical elegance and casual grace. But what makes these poems
especially powerful is their democratic ethic. This is a virtuoso
collection—and we’re all part of it.” —Elaine Equi
“Celebrates walking down the streets of Manhattan, keenly aware of
what Hart Crane called ‘the veins of eternity flowing through the
crowds around us’ . . . all the while maintaining an awareness of
the rainbow of people whose suffering and very bones prop us up and
sustain our existence, leading the pedestrian to appreciate the
sanctity of the ground on which they tread.” —Jim Feast, Rain
Taxi
“Remarkable . . . Katz’s wondrous and erratic perspective amuses
the reader’s mind . . . One gets the impression that the poet is
telling his story as he has lived it, in his own words and in his
own way . . . Lucid, succinct, and fluent.” —Rochak Agarwal,
Pegasus Literary
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