Halflife

by Meghan O'Rourke

Overview

"Magnificent." —New York Times Book Review

The insomniac speakers in Halflife are coming of age in a mythical world full of threat and promise. Seeking their true selves amid the fallen cathedrals of America, they speak wryly of destructive love affairs, aesthetic obsession, and encroaching war, but refuse to abandon hope in the power of imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393333176
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2008
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Meghan O'Rourke is the author of the collections Sun in Days, Halflife, and Once, as well as a memoir, The Long Goodbye. A former editor at The New Yorker, she has served as culture editor and literary critic for Slate, poetry editor for the Paris Review, and is currently the editor of The Yale Review. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Best American Poetry, the New Republic, and Poetry, among others. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship, and other awards, she lives in Brooklyn.

Editorial Reviews

"Concise, sophisticated poems…immediate magic."

Chicago Tribune - Katie Peterson

"Fiercely and fearlessly rich, her lines burn like encaustic: 'the burning thing.'"

John Ashbery

"An impressive first collection, Halflife is a box full of surprises and intense delights."

Billy Collins