After New Formalism: Poets on Form, Narrative, and Tradition edited by Annie Finch

This courageous collection of essays, edited by Annie Finch, on poetic form from a diversity of poets heralded the changes that were to come to formal poetics in the 21st century as poets from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives found in poetic form a tool of great potential range and power.

After New Formalism is a landmark text in a still-expanding conversation on the formal possibilities of contemporary poetry and on the implications of formalism for poetic history, practice, and theory. It combines classic essays such as Adrienne Rich's "Format and Form" and Agha Shahid Ali's "The Ghazal: May I" with essays impossible to find elsewhere in book form such as Marilyn Nelson's "Owning the Masters" (first written especially for this volume) and Paul Lake's "Verse That Print Bred."

Contributors include Dana Gioia, Mark Jarman, David Mason, Marilyn Nelson, Molly Peacock, and Adrienne Rich, among others.  This book was the first book publication of now-classic essays such as Marilyn Nelson's "Owning the Masters" and Paul Lake's "Verse That Print Bred."