About the Author

Fanny Howe is the author of more than twenty books of poetry and prose, including Come and See, The Lyrics, and The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation. She received the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. She lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

"[Second Childhood] is surprisingly accessible, a contemplation of how old age resembles childhood. . . . The real triumph of [Howe's] art . . . offers glimpses of the unseeable, shards of the unsayable, between the slats of the words, between meanings. Whether we see what this reflexive poetry tries to show may have more to do with our own sense of faith--in language, if not in God--than with hers." --Craig Teicher, New York Times Book Review "Masterfully lyrical. . . . Howe navigates between indeterminate and shifting speakers and addressees with a wide array of tools, like obfuscating shadows, contradictions, and a precious, serene delicacy that channels a childlike marvel." --Publishers Weekly "The mystery of faith, the question of an afterlife, the joys and sorrows of motherhood and grandmotherhood--all are explored in this new volume by one of America's most dazzling poets." --O, The Oprah Magazine "Visionary. . . . The line breaks are as sharp as the facets of gems, with the rhymes the shine. . . . Extraordinary poems." --Booklist "Emotionally detailed, inventive, Fanny Howe continues to surprise us." --Washington Independent Review of Books