Reading Poetry with College and University Students

Thomas Fink is Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College-City University of New York, USA, and author of 11 books of poetry. His scholarly publications include "A Different Sense of Power": Problems of Community in Late Twentieth-Century U.S. Poetry (2001) and Reading the Difficulties: Dialogues with Contemporary American Innovative Poetry (2014; co-editor with Judith Halden-Sullivan).

• Introduction1. Barriers to Access and Engagement2. Emotional Enticements and Aversions3. Crossroads of InterpretationConclusionAcknowledgmentsWorks CitedIndex

A wonderful introduction for those that teach as well as study poetry. Fink thoughtfully guides the reader through poetry-phobia by working through the ostensible emotional complexity and intellectual difficulty of a form with which many readers struggle. In a series of accessible and enjoyable chapters, Fink never oversells the pleasures of poetry and instead foregrounds dynamic techniques for fostering discussion in the seminar setting. Alongside clear reviews of current theoretical interpretive approaches and vibrant definitions of key literary terms, Fink engages an extensive body of poets from Shakespeare and George Herbert, to Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde, Denise Duhamel and Evie Shockley. Essential reading for all teachers of poetry.