The Music of Failure

THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF BILL HOLM'S INFLUENTIAL FIRST BOOK OF ESSAYS

-Bill Holm's essays test the general assumptions of Americans about themselves against the private realities of their lives in a particular place. The place is Minneota, Minnesota, vividly evoked in Tom Guttormsson's photographs as well as in Holm's words."-TOBIAS WOLFF

"A good book, perhaps even a great book. Holm has found his voice, and he speaks to the 'hollowness of heart' words that remind us and convince us that the true symbols of fullness of heart exist only in nature and in failures like Pauline, rather than in things that can he charged on credit cards."-ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

"Bill Holm's essay 'The Music of Failure' is worth the price of the whole book. Why will Americans agree to experience so many things, but not failure? The beauty of failure is his theme. A brilliant essay."-ROBERT BLY

"Bill Holm's is a classic American voice. It's the voice of the prairie radical, the village agnostic, toting volumes of Walt Whitman."-LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Bill Holm is one of Minnesota's funniest and most thought-provoking essayists and poets."-LIBRARY JOURNAL

BILL HOLM (1943- 2009) was a one-of-a-kind poet, essayist, and musician. The author of many books of poetry and prose, including Box-elder Bug Variations, The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere here on Earth, and Windows on Brimnes, he won the Minnesota Book Award and, in 2008, was named the McKnight Distinguished Artist of the Year.
JIM HEYNEN has published widely in the genres of poetry, novels, nonfiction, and short fiction.
DAVID PICHASKE is editor in chief of Spoon River Poetry Press, Ellis Press, and Plains Press.