Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Poetry History & Criticism. AMBITION AND SURVIVAL is a collection of stirring personal essays and critical prose on a wide range of subjects: reading Milton in Guatemala, recalling violent episodes of his youth, and traveling in Africa with his eccentric father, as well as a series of penetrating essays on writers as diverse as Thomas Hardy and Janet Lewis. The book concludes with a portrait of Wiman's diagnosis of a rare form of incurable and lethal cancer, and how mortality reignited his religious passions.

"This weighty first prose collection should inspire wide attention, partly because of Wiman's current job, partly because of his astute insights and partly because he mixes poetry criticism with sometimes shocking memoir.... The collection's greatest strength comes in general ruminations on the writing, reading and judging poetry."—Publishers Weekly

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.