A Passion According to Green

Review

"In one of the startling and bracing poems in his new collection, Mark Irwin writes, 'I believed that language could save us from the temporal.' It might be said that all lyric poems derive from this heartbreaking and Quixotic longing. Yet Irwin is a writer undaunted by the lyric's insufficiency. He makes from our confusion and bewilderment a poetry of propulsive language, imaginative depth, and a wounded moral authority that recalls the work of Milosz, Herbert, and Szymborska. In other words, Mark Irwin fashions poems that matter."--David Wojahn (1/1/2017 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

MARK IRWIN's poetry and essays have appeared widely in many literary magazines including The American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Poetry, The Nation, New England Review, and the New Republic. The author of five previous collections of poetry, The Halo of Desire (1987), Against the Meanwhile, Wesleyan University Press (1989), Quick, Now, Always, BOA (1996), White City, BOA (2000), and Bright Hunger, BOA (2004), he has also translated two volumes of poetry, one from the French and one from the Romanian. Recognition for his work includes The Nation/Discovery Award, four Pushcart Prizes, National Endowment for the Arts and Ohio Art Council Fellowships, two Colorado Council for the Arts Fellowships, two Colorado Book Awards, the James Wright Poetry Award, and fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, and Wurlitzer Foundations. He lives in Colorado, and Los Angeles, where he currently teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern California.