 | Breaking the Jaws of Silence: Sixty American Poets Speak to the World Subjects: Protest poetry American; Human rights -- Poetry; Liberty -- Poetry; Freedom of expression -- Poetry; American poetry -- 21st century; American poetry -- 20th century; Through the support of PEN Center USA, Iranian American poet and translator Sholeh Wolpé has brought together sixty American poets to address the world through poems that not only meditate on the principles of freedom, justice, and tolerance but also boldly and directly address specific countries. Natasha Trethewey, Robert Bly, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Galway Kinnell, Philip Levine, Carolyn Forché, Billy Collins, Jorie Graham, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Quincy Troupe are just some of the poets whose work is gathered in this powerful new collection. These poets speak out in the tradition of all poets who speak out in uprisings, seeking to change the landscape despite an environment of oppression, torture, and denial of basic human rights. All poems included were gifted to this anthology, which will benefit PEN Center USA's Freedom to Write program. Sholeh Wolpé is the author of three collections of poetry including Keeping Time with Blue Hyacinths and Rooftops of Tehran , and she is the editor of The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles and a regional editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East . Her books of translations include Sin: Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad , which was awarded the Lois Roth Persian Translations Award in 2010, and a Persian translation of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself . |
