Ruth Stone is the author of nine books of poetry, for which she has received the National Book Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Shelley Memorial Award. She taught creative writing at many universities, finally settling at SUNY Binghamton. She lives in Vermont.
In direct, plain language, Ruth Stone fashions a poetry that is
neither encumbered by decorative artifice nor burdened by the
obscurity so often cited as a complaint against contemporary
poetry. Stone's tone is rarely ironic, her diction never flat. She
balances the formal aspects of her poems with the necessity of her
subject matter: observations of everyday life, the pain of lost
love, the passing of generations of relations, and the
peregrinations of an octogenarian at century's end. In a world so
desperate for voices to instruct troubled souls, Ruth Stone's
poetry is a reminder of the beauty in pain and loss, and the
extraordinary in ordinary words. Readers of good, straightforward
poetry are missing out if they have not yet come across the work of
Ruth Stone.--The Philadelphia Inquirer
In direct, plain language, Ruth Stone fashions a poetry that is
neither encumbered by decorative artifice nor burdened by the
obscurity so often cited as a complaint against contemporary
poetry. Stone's tone is rarely ironic, her diction never flat. She
balances the formal aspects of her poems with the necessity of her
subject matter: observations of everyday life, the pain of lost
love, the passing of generations of relations, and the
peregrinations of an octogenarian at century's end. In a world so
desperate for voices to instruct troubled souls, Ruth Stone's
poetry is a reminder of the beauty in pain and loss, and the
extraordinary in ordinary words. Readers of good, straightforward
poetry are missing out if they have not yet come across the work of
Ruth Stone.--The Philadelphia Inquirer
Call her brilliant, call her prolific; just don't call her
'octogenarian'. 'That's a put-down' in this culture, says poet Ruth
Stone of press coverage that typically led with her age (84) in
trumpeting her latest professional achievement; winning the
respected National Book Critics Circle Award for her 11th book,
Ordinary Words. There is a place for poetry in our hurry-up,
dot.com world, says Stone, a professor of English at the State
University of New York at Binghamton. 'I speak to my students about
this universe we carry around on our shoulders this head, which has
in it everything we've ever seen or read or experienced, ' says
Stone. 'When you allow your mind to speak to you [through writing],
it is one of the greatest things human beings do.--AARP Bulletin
Founded recently to present "the work of women writers who have been neglected or misrepresented in the literary world," Paris Press did well by Stone--her book recently won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. At 85, with 11 books to her credit, Stone finally received long-overdue recognition. Stone's work could be described as witty (see, for instance, "Western Purdah" on the joys of wearing pantyhose) if it weren't so tartly obvious in addressing the darker side of life. Ordinary words, these aren't. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
In direct, plain language, Ruth Stone fashions a poetry that is
neither encumbered by decorative artifice nor burdened by the
obscurity so often cited as a complaint against contemporary
poetry. Stone's tone is rarely ironic, her diction never flat. She
balances the formal aspects of her poems with the necessity of her
subject matter: observations of everyday life, the pain of lost
love, the passing of generations of relations, and the
peregrinations of an octogenarian at century's end. In a world so
desperate for voices to instruct troubled souls, Ruth Stone's
poetry is a reminder of the beauty in pain and loss, and the
extraordinary in ordinary words. Readers of good, straightforward
poetry are missing out if they have not yet come across the work of
Ruth Stone.--The Philadelphia Inquirer
In direct, plain language, Ruth Stone fashions a poetry that is
neither encumbered by decorative artifice nor burdened by the
obscurity so often cited as a complaint against contemporary
poetry. Stone's tone is rarely ironic, her diction never flat. She
balances the formal aspects of her poems with the necessity of her
subject matter: observations of everyday life, the pain of lost
love, the passing of generations of relations, and the
peregrinations of an octogenarian at century's end. In a world so
desperate for voices to instruct troubled souls, Ruth Stone's
poetry is a reminder of the beauty in pain and loss, and the
extraordinary in ordinary words. Readers of good, straightforward
poetry are missing out if they have not yet come across the work of
Ruth Stone.--The Philadelphia Inquirer
Call her brilliant, call her prolific; just don't call her
'octogenarian'. 'That's a put-down' in this culture, says poet Ruth
Stone of press coverage that typically led with her age (84) in
trumpeting her latest professional achievement; winning the
respected National Book Critics Circle Award for her 11th book,
Ordinary Words. There is a place for poetry in our hurry-up,
dot.com world, says Stone, a professor of English at the State
University of New York at Binghamton. 'I speak to my students about
this universe we carry around on our shoulders this head, which has
in it everything we've ever seen or read or experienced, ' says
Stone. 'When you allow your mind to speak to you [through writing],
it is one of the greatest things human beings do.--AARP Bulletin
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
