Âgnes Nemes Nagy on Poetry, a Hungarian Perspective

"It is wonderful to have these essays by a significant poet of our century gathered together and expertly translated into English. Âgnes Nemes Nagy is one of the most important figures in East European poetry, and her work is still in the process of being discovered by English-speaking readers. Her prose, meanwhile, reveals another side of her sensibility, and its range of subjects and insights is considerable. This collection will be of interest not only because it is the work of an important woman writer and a Hungarian survivor of Stalinism, but because it is the writing of a skilled and deeply thoughtful poet." - David Young

"Âgnes Nemes Nagy was an excellent and influential essayist. She started publishing her literary and personal essays in the 70s and those publications immediately struck the readers with their deeply personal, witty, ironical, or passionate tone. She could do what only very few can: she talks about the difficult and nowadays almost esoteric field of poetic theory and practice with ease, elegance, and transparency." - Péter Dávidházi

Table of Contents
Preface (Bruce Berlind)
Introduction (Gyözö Ferencz)
1. Essays and a Dialogue: Without Buffaloes; Negative Statues; "Ephemeral Apple"; On the Crisis of Language; Do We Know What We're Doing?; Rose, Rose; A Dialogue on Contemporary Poetry; Star-Eyed; The Geometry of the Poem; Preface for my Poetry Collection
2. A Literary Haystack: Navigation is Necessary; Yellow-and-Blue; On Style; Mother Tongue; The Poet's Secret; How Many Blues Are There?; Hyacinth; Hyacinth with Scruples; Hyacinth in Snow; Living Geometry
Notes