Smart and Final Iris (Further Reading)

Further Reading

• Bellamy, Joe David, ed., American Poetry Observed, University of Illinois Press, 1988.

  This volume of interviews is unusual because well-known contemporary poets interview other well-known contemporary poets. As a result, the exchange is substantive and focused.

• Lifton, Robert Jay, and Nicholas Humphrey, eds., In a Dark Time, Harvard University Press, 1984.

  Psychiatrists Lifton and Humphrey have collected excerpts from literature of the last 2,500 years that comments on the psychological and imaginative confusion surrounding war. Lifton is known for his psychological studies of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

• Tate, James, The Route As Briefed, University of Michigan Press, 1999.

  This volume collects Tate’s short stories, interviews, and essays. It is an engaging, accessible, and humorous collection.

• Tate, James, and David Lehman, The Best American Poetry 1997, Scribner, 1997.

  Each year, a different poet is invited to guest edit a new volume in this popular series. Tate selected the poems for this volume, and his selections can tell readers as much about his own taste as his own poetry can. Tate’s introduction, “Live Yak Pie,” provides insights into his composing process and his vision of what poetry can be.