The Elliott Bay Book Company

Noted poet Mary Jo Bang, whose 2007 collection, Elegy, received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book citation, makes this welcome first Elliott Bay visit to read from her newest book of poems, The Bride of E (Graywolf). "The alphabet, as an organizing principle, is arbitrary. But around each of its discrete, singular letters, like goldfinches to thistle heads, notions flit, cluster, and congregate. This is precisely what they do in The Bride of E, Mary Jo Bang's compendious new alphabet book, casting shadows, revealing flashes of light and color. These are poems of deft invention, explorations into a trove of ready happenstance. They are not all happy poems, but they are all avowals—like the letters of the alphabet, they are for things. This is a book of darks and delights. It is totally amazing." – Lyn Hejinian. "This book bridges a gap between an experimental tradition in American poetry and an older high lyric tradition. This is some of Bang's best writing, and one of the most exciting books of the year." – Publishers Weekly.