Poetry. HARD NIGHT is a book of appealing intensity and range. From personal lyrics of loss and solitude to ambitiously evocative narratives, Christian Wiman's new poems reveal a talent and scope that are rare in contemporary poetry. Three long poems define the structure of HARD NIGHT, each variously meditating on art, loneliness and love. The book culminates with "Being Serious," a birth-to-death biography of a Serious, a tragi-comic man who is as entertaining as he is poignant. Interspersed are twenty shorter lyrics that in their formal and musical dexterity, emotional directness, and avoidance of sentimentality recall the work of Frost and Yeats.

Author City: Chicago, IL USA

Christian Wiman is the editor of the oldest and most prestigious magazine of verse, Poetry. He has taught at Northwestern, Stanford, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. His poems, criticism, and personal essays appear widely in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and Slate. He lives in Chicago.