Ideal Cities by Erika Meitner (Harper Perennial, August 2010) 

A 2009 National Poetry Series Winner    see the HarperCollins or Harper Perennial Catalog

 

Cover art by the fantastic  Kim Beck	"Ideal Cities by Erika Meitner is velocity and landscape, language and heart, the modern blur in which we live. These poems are so generous, so bright and sharp, so funny and winning, they feel immense: from the first lines, I was captivated. They were an unassailable announcement that the reader would never be bored or unmoved, that they were places one would never want to leave."  - Paul Guest, Judge for the 2009 National Poetry Series   "The poems in Erika Meitner's Ideal Cities are road maps, blueprints, dollhouses, dioramas. Her decidedly unsentimental, poignant odes celebrate grand subjects and the joys of domestic life with idiosyncratic flair. Meitner's poetry isn't afraid of history and personal histories. Her voice is smart, sassy, and savvy. Her ideal poems are built with mortar and quirkily astounding metaphors." - Denise Duhamel, author of Ka-Ching!   "There are times, not too often I must admit, when you are downright glad you know somebody. And if that somebody is also a poet the story gets a lot better. And if that poetry is good, well, that's butter in your grits, kisses on your pillow, someone to put your cold feet on while you curl up with Ideal Cities. Erika Meitner is the new voice of intelligent and emotional poems. Good for poetry. Good for poetry lovers. Good for the rest of us too." - Nikki Giovanni, author of Bicycles: Love Poems
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Resources          study guide for Ideal Cities (pdf)         browse inside Ideal Cities         sample poems             Elegy with Construction Sounds, Water, Fish             You Are Invisible             The Upstairs Notebook             Ideal Cities           Press Kit           hi-res book cover (jpg)           hi-res author photo (b&w)           hi-res author photo (color)           short bio (pdf) | 125 words & 64 words           artist vitae (pdf) | 2 pages           press release (pdf) | 2 pages

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reviews of Ideal Cities (more coming soon...)

The New York Times (Dana Jennings)   Corduroy Books (Carrie Meadows)    Books and Culture (Lauren Winner)   New Poetry (Zach Hudson)  

Corduroy Books (Weston Cutter)    Barn Owl Review (Matthew Guenette)    Englewood Review of Books (Brittany Buczynski)  

Boston Review (Stephen Burt)    The Dallas Morning News (Alex Lemon)   The Kenyon Review Blog (Jake Adam York)