A Bernadette Mayer Reader - Bernadette Mayer

Published by New Directions
First edition in 1992

148 pages

ISBN 978-0-8112-1203-8

13.5 × 20.5 cm (5 ⅜ × 8 ⅛ inches)

A Bernadette Mayer Reader is mostly of pieces that were originally published in small press books and chapbooks, magazines, and anthologies. The book holds poetry and prose from Mayer’s earliest works to then-contemporary publications. From Story (1968), to excerpts from Desires of Mothers and Midwinter Day (1982), and including a cache of new poems, this is a sprawling, surprising collection of Mayer at her best.

Reader was met with praise from peers and critics alike. In the words of Jackson Mac Low, "[Mayer] never gets stuck in one place - she changes as the spirit moves her- and her structural inventions and self-revelations provoke surprise and delight."

Of the publication, Fanny Howe writes, "America could prove that her conscience, heart, and intelligence are still operating with this one volume of poetry."