New Directions in Prose and Poetry 20

by James Laughlin (Editor), Peter Glassgold (Editor), Griselda Jackson Ohannessian (Editor)

Overview

Since 1936, the New Directions in Prose and Poetry anthologies have served as vehicles for the presentation of new and variant trends in world literature.
This anthology series draws on authors from countries across the world and features selections of the finest new prose and poetry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811203319
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	01/17/1968
Series:	New Directions in Prose and Poetry Series , #20
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

James Laughlin (1914–1997) founded New Directions in 1936 while still a student at Harvard. He wrote and compiled more than a dozen books of poetry as well as stories and essays; seven volumes of his correspondence with his authors are available from W.W. Norton.

Peter Glassgold is the former editor in chief of New Directions.

Born in New York City in 1927, Griselda Ohannessian studied to be a pianist at Barnard College and has been associated with New
Directions Publishing since 1956. She was the President and Managing
Director when she retired in 2005, and she is still a member of the New
Directions Board of Directors.

Editorial Reviews

Representing the work of 24 authors--including New Directions publisher Laughlin--in several literary genres and from half a dozen countries, the latest in New Direction's annual anthologies ranges, for example, from the poetry of Bei Dao (Chinese) to that of Craig Raine (British). Drawing both on the celebrated and the unsung, it is somewhat erratic in quality. Among the best pieces is Judy Gahagan's short story ``Did Gustav Mahler Ski?,''6 the slope-side chronicle of an unwilling vacationer whose ``fear of skiing was made up of many tiny fears which clung around some central fear like wasps around a sticky jar.''11 In ``The Death of Anatoly Marchenko,''79 Anthony Tripi simultaneously evokes pathos and irony in telling, at great length, of a California bureaucrat whose job ultimately drives him crazy. By contrast, Bradford Morrow's ``A Bestiary''146 is brief and whimsical: the armadillo ``looks like the Michelin tire man, but without the smile and friendly waving hand.''146 But the melancholy trend of some stories is tiresome, as is experimentalism gone awry (Andrei Codrescu's ``Outings''162 ). Glassgold and Ohannessian are editor-in-chief and managing director, respectively, of New Directions. (Nov.)

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