Call for Suggestions: Poems about Elizabeth Bishop.
Brian Bartlett, Anne Shifrer, and Corey Clawson, Elizabeth Bishop scholars or readers, are compiling an anthology of poems that respond to the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. We are looking for poems that comment significantly on Bishop’s life and personhood as well as poems that comment on or engage with the craft, style, or substance of her poetry. Poems that shape themselves in relation to Bishop’s work (e.g., Lowell’s “Skunk Hour” modeling its ending on Bishop’s “The Armadillo”) are also of interest.
While we may include a few unpublished poems, our primary goal is to gather published poems (approx. from 1950-2012) and to present these as a poetic conversation that both adds to the critical conversation and provides its own unique commentary on the character, craft, and value of Bishop’s art.
The editors would greatly appreciate suggestions from Elizabeth Bishop readers and the broad audience of poetry readers as there are doubtless many poems of which we are unaware. Please send suggestions to Anne.Shifrer@usu.edu and she will send these along to the other editors.
We may also propose a panel on this subject for the 2013 American Literature Association Annual Conference to be held in Boston, May 21-24. Those interested in our project might look toward participation in such a panel.
Elizabeth Bishop Society 