Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems

Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems was conceived from a poetic dialogue on how to shed light on the art and science behind the material construction of a poetry collection, and to generate a conversation around an art form too-long hermetically obscured. This anthology of interconnected essays (craft, lyric, and critical) explores the art and technique of poetry manuscript assembly as articulated by poets in all stages of their careers. Stylistically innovative, the essays range in conception from lyrical meditations, close readings, extended metaphors (including bookshelf assembly, cooking, caring for one’s mother, and bonsai trees), and an F.A.Q for writers seeking to ask the hard questions of their manuscripts, and themselves. Theorizing the poetry manuscript process through creative and aleatory means and celebrating the richness and depth of our poetic origins and legacies, this anthology, a primer in autopoiesis, is a timely, invaluable, and compact resource for creative writing teachers, as well as emerging and established poets honing their craft. Writers in other genres (fiction and non-) will also benefit from this widely applicable yet nuanced and craft-based discussion of how to bring a book into being from vital contemporary perspectives on the narrative and lyric traditions.

Contributors: Diane Seuss, Heather Treseler, Christopher Salerno, Annie Finch, Stephen Kampa, Alyse Knorr, Harvey Hix, Karyna McGlynn, Philip Metres, Kazim Ali, Cyrus Cassells, and Victoria Chang

Virginia Konchan is the author of the poetry collections Bel Canto (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2022), Hallelujah Time (Véhicule Press, 2021), Any God Will Do, and The End of Spectacle (Carnegie Mellon, 2020 and 2018), and a short story collection, Anatomical Gift (Noctuary Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Yale Review, Boston Review, and The Believer.Sarah Giragosian is the author of the poetry collection Queer Fish, a winner of the American Poetry Journal Book Prize (Dream Horse Press, 2017) and The Death Spiral (Black Lawrence Press, 2020). Sarah’s writing has appeared in such journals as Orion, Ecotone, The Missouri Review, Tin House, and Prairie Schooner, among others. She teaches at the University at Albany-SUNY.