{"product_id":"playlist-for-the-apocalypse-poems-9780393867770","title":"Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America's, and the world's, experiments in democracy. Whether depicting the first Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice or the contemporary efforts of Black Lives Matter, a girls' night clubbing in the shadow of World War II or the doomed nobility of Muhammad Ali's conscious objector stance, this extraordinary poet never fails to connect history's grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeticulously orchestrated and musical in its forms, \u003cem\u003ePlaylist for the Apocalypse\u003c\/em\u003e collects a dazzling array of voices: an elevator operator simmers with resentment, an octogenarian dances an exuberant mambo, a spring cricket philosophizes with mordant humor on hip hop, critics, and Valentine's Day. Calamity turns all too personal in the book's final section, \"Little Book of Woe,\" which charts a journey from terror to hope as Dove learns to cope with debilitating chronic illness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt turns audaciously playful and grave, alternating poignant meditations on mortality and acerbic observations of injustice, \u003cem\u003ePlaylist for the Apocalypse\u003c\/em\u003e takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to catastrophic failures of the human soul. Listen up, the poet says, speaking truth to power; what you'll hear in return is \"a lifetime of song.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDove, Rita:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eRita Dove\u003c\/strong\u003e, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, is the only poet honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her recent works include \u003cem\u003ePlaylist for the Apocalypse\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSonata Mulattica\u003c\/em\u003e, and the National Book Award-shortlisted \u003cem\u003eCollected Poems: 1974-2004\u003c\/em\u003e. In 2021 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Charlottesville, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50529110491410,"sku":"9780393867770","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_639a50e7-c657-4ef6-b619-9c3136fdc748.jpg?v=1731340111","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/playlist-for-the-apocalypse-poems-9780393867770","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}