Overview

Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterized as ""inaccessible,"" ""irrelevant,"" or ""intimidating."" She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream, question, and cultivate community. Lifting the veil on her own creative process, Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us to better confront life's many uncertainties and losses, build camaraderie with strangers, and understand ourselves more fully. In six insightful chapters, she grounds readers in the technical elements of the craft and provides close readings of the works of contemporary poets such as Joy Harjo, Danez Smith, and Francisco Márquez, alongside classic poems by Dickinson, Keats, Millay, and others. By reimaging and reexamining the age-old art form, Fear Less is a warm invitation to find meaning, consolation, and hope through poetry for poetry fans and newcomers to the art form.

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9781324050988

Table of Contents

Reviews

Using her rare blend of lyric precision, intellectual depth, and civic consciousness, Tracy K. Smith considers how language can reshape, resist, and reform a nation. Smith resists numbness, defies borders, and offers a deeper articulation of what is truly at stake: our shared humanity.--Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley and poet-in-residence, Lincoln Center Fear Less is a great inhale of much-needed air. Smith has once again shown us that she is both brilliant and tender as she explores the ways poems can change us. This is a must-have book.--Ada Limón, 24th U. S. Poet Laureate and author of The Hurting Kind What a sincere kindness we have been granted with this book. Fear Less is an invitation for even the most reticent among us to approach poems with generosity, curiosity, and an open heart. And in the process, Smith reminds us to cultivate those same habits in our dealings with others and with ourselves.--Eve L. Ewing, author of 1919

I can think of no more inviting, generous, thoughtful, curious, and serious a guide into poetry than Tracy K. Smith. Fear Less is a book I will share with the people in my life who love poetry, and the people in my life who might.--Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights Using her rare blend of lyric precision, intellectual depth, and civic consciousness, Tracy K. Smith considers how language can reshape, resist, and reform a nation. Smith resists numbness, defies borders, and offers a deeper articulation of what is truly at stake: our shared humanity.--Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley and poet-in-residence, Lincoln Center Fear Less is a great inhale of much-needed air. Smith has once again shown us that she is both brilliant and tender as she explores the ways poems can change us. This is a must-have book.--Ada Limón, 24th U. S. Poet Laureate and author of The Hurting Kind What a sincere kindness we have been granted with this book. Fear Less is an invitation for even the most reticent among us to approach poems with generosity, curiosity, and an open heart. And in the process, Smith reminds us to cultivate those same habits in our dealings with others and with ourselves.--Eve L. Ewing, author of 1919

Author Information

Tracy K. Smith is the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States and is the author of five poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Life on Mars.

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