Congratulations to Prof. Lawrence Joseph …

… on the publication of his latest book The Game Changed: Essays and Other Prose (Michigan 2011).  The book is part of the Poets on Poetry series, which “collects critical works by contemporary poets, gathering together the articles, interviews, and book reviews by which they have articulated the poetics of a new generation.”

The Game Changed: Essays and Other Prose presents works by prominent poet and lawyer Lawrence Joseph that focus on poetry and poetics, and on what it is to be a poet. Joseph takes the reader through the aesthetics of modernism and postmodernism, a lineage that includes Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Gertrude Stein, switching critical tracks to major European poets like Eugenio Montale and Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and back to American masters like James Schuyler and Adrienne Rich.

Always discerning, especially on issues of identity, form, and the pressures of history and politics, Joseph places his own poetry within its critical contexts, presenting narratives of his life in Detroit, where he grew up, and in Manhattan, where he has lived for 30 years. These pieces also portray Joseph’s Lebanese, Syrian, and Catholic heritages, and his life as a lawyer, distinguished law professor, and legal scholar.

Professor Joseph, whose papers were recently made part of the University of Michigan Library’s Special Collection, will be doing a reading from his new book on January 17, 2012, following the Alumni Association Board of Director’s Meeting, which will be held at the offices of Simpson Thacher.  More details to follow.