The Oldest Word for Dawn—New and Selected Poems

From one of our most universally admired poets: a generous selection from his five acclaimed books of poetry, and an innovative, adventurous group of new poems.

This is the first selected from Brad Leithauser, whose work--beginning with the publication of his Hundreds of Fireflies, in 1982--has garnered a devoted readership and some of the most prestigious awards given to writers, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Award. The Oldest Word for Dawn--full of poems about travel (Iceland, Japan), prehistory (dinosaurs, cave painters), people (young lovers, an aging woman beclouded by Alzheimer's), animals, love, death--covers the full arc of his career thus far. Timed to coincide with his sixtieth birthday, it will be cause for celebration among critics and poetry lovers alike.

BRAD LEITHAUSER is the author of five collections of poetry, six novels, a novel in verse, two collections of light verse, and a book of essays. Among the many awards and honors he has received are a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant, and a MacArthur Fellowship. He served for a year as Time magazine’s theater critic. In 2005, Leithauser was inducted into the Order of the Falcon by the president of Iceland for his writings about Nordic literature. He is a professor in the writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University and divides his time between Baltimore, Maryland, and Amherst, Massachusetts.