The Contemporary Narrative Poem: Critical Crosscurrents, edited by University of Iowa alumnus Steven P. Schneider, is now available from the UI Press.

Over the past 30 years, narrative poems have made a comeback against the lyric approach to poetry that has dominated the past century. Drawing on a decade of conferences and critical seminars on the topic, The Contemporary Narrative Poem examines this resurgence of narrative and the cultural and literary forces motivating it.

Gathering 10 essays from poet-critics who write from a wide range of perspectives and address a wide range of works, the collection transcends narrow conceptions of narrative, antinarrative, and metanarrative. The authors ask several questions: What formal strategies do recent narrative poems take? What social, cultural, and epistemological issues are raised in such poems? How do contemporary narrative poems differ from modernist narrative poems? In what ways has history been incorporated into the recent narrative poetry? How have poets used the lyric within narrative poems? How do experimental poets redefine narrative itself through their work? And what role does consciousness play in the contemporary narrative poem? The answers they supply will engage every poet and student of poetry.

Schneider is currently a professor of English and the director of New Programs and Special Projects in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas-Pan American. He is also a published author, critic, and poet. Schneider earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, graduating cum laude at Syracuse University in 1973. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the UI four years later. In 1986, he earned a doctorate in English and American literature at the UI.

The book is available at bookstores or from the UI Press, 800-621-2736 or www.uiowapress.org. Customers in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa may order from Eurospan Group at www.eurospanbookstore.com.