Description
Book SynopsisRandon Billings Noble has collected a range of lyric essays in a variety of forms that showcase the essay’s openness to experimentation, reliance on authentic voice, and potential to explore complex subject matter.
Trade Review"This anthology is a treasure chest of daring ways to take one's voice to the page."—Celia Jeffries,
Brevity"Whether a product of the limbic system of the brain, where emotions and memories are processed, or of a conscious response to formal constraints, the lyric essay is highly attuned and deeply suited to making sense of things.
A Harp in the Stars helps the reader make sense of things. Its neon flashes:
You are not alone."—Alison Powell,
Colorado Review"The contributions represent a range of experiences and each essay brings a different perception of the form of a lyric essay. . . . I highly recommend
A Harp in the Stars edited by Randon Billings Noble for those interested in writing and reading lyric essays."—Alexa Josaphouitch,
Hippocampus Magazine“I’ve been searching for a book like this for over twenty years. Its remarkable dazzle—a sharp, eclectic anthology combined with whip-smart craft essays—carves out a fascinating look into the bright heart of what the lyric essay can be.”—Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of
World of Wonders“Perhaps the best way to define the lyric essay—a notoriously borderless, slippery literary form—is to gather several dozen finely written examples that invite the reader to engage in acts of mapping and naming themselves. This anthology does just that, with the added bonuses of thought-provoking craft pieces with decidedly lyric bents and a special attention to intersections of the lyric and the personal. I can easily imagine assigning this book in any forward-thinking class, graduate or undergraduate, that involves writing or analyzing expressive prose.”—Elena Passarello, author of
Let Me Clear My Throat: Essays“Randon Billings Noble has assembled a stellar collection of lyric essays that truly highlights the best these forms have to offer. This book will be pulled from my shelf again and again—for my own reading and as a resource for my students.”—Brenda Miller, author of
An Earlier LifeTable of ContentsIntroduction
Randon Billings Noble
Gyre
Diane Seuss
Immortal Wound
Jericho Parms
Vide
Sarah Minor
Satellite
Sarah Perry
Woven
Lidia Yuknavitch
Re: Sometime after 5:00 p.m. on a Wednesday in the Middle of Autumn
Daniel Garcia
Searching for Gwen
Laurie Easter
This Is the Room Where
Nels P. Highberg
The Boys of New Delhi: An Essay in Four Hurts
Sayantani Dasgupta
The Wait(ress)
Amy Roost
Beasts of the Fields
Aimée Baker
In My Brother’s Shadow
Talea Anderson
Mash-Up: A Family Album
Sarah Viren
Nevermore
Katie Manning
Classified
Susanna Donato
Prophecy
Eric Tran
Scars, Silence, and Dian Fossey
Angie Chuang
Nausea
Layla Benitez-James
Manual
Amy Bowers
Elementary Primer
Michael Dowdy
The Punch
Christopher Linforth
Intersectional Landscapes
Kristina Gaddy
My Mother’s Mother
Davon Loeb
Apocalypse Logic
Elissa Washuta
The Sound of Things Breaking
Ru Freeman
Self-Portrait in Apologies
Sarah Einstein
Fragment: Strength
Casandra López
Body Wash: Instructions on Surviving Homelessness
Dorothy Bendel
Informed Consent
Elizabeth K. Brown
Thanks, but No
Emily Brisse
Frida’s Circle
Dinty W. Moore
A Catalog of Faith
Kelsey Inouye
Practical Magic: A Beginner’s Grimoire
Rowan McCandless
Depends on Who You Ask
Sandra Beasley
Against Fidelity
Leslie Jill Patterson
Loss Collection
Lia Purpura
I’m No Sidney Poitier
Curtis Smith
Why I Let Him Touch My Hair
Tyrese L. Coleman
Thanatophobia
Christen Noel Kauffman
Of a Confession, Sketched from Ten Vignettes
LaTanya McQueen
The Heart as a Torn Muscle
Randon Billings Noble
On Beauty Interrupted
Marsha McGregor
Late Bloom
Caitlin Myer
The Last Cricket
Steve Edwards
Craft Essays
Success in Circuit: Lyric Essay as Labyrinth
Heidi Czerwiec
Finding Your Voice
Marina Blitshteyn
Lying in the Lyric
Chelsey Clammer
Chance Operations
Maya Sonenberg
On the EEO Genre Sheet
Jenny Boully
What’s Missing Here
Julie Marie Wade
Meditations
Source Acknowledgments
Contributors
