Robert Pack Libros

What an extraordinary gift Robert Pack, who has blessed us with poems for the past sixty-five years, has given us in this, his most recent volume! Where to begin? Let's begin with the strange, even unsettling title of Pack's new volume: Event Horizon. It's an astronomical term, it turns out, and signifies 'a theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which no light or other radiation can escape.' In other words, a point of no return. And there you have it, Pack at his canniest, most quizzical, most plangent, and at the same time comic. And make no mistake: these poems will bear all those resonances and radiations out.

This collection of essays champions liberal arts education, echoing Samuel Johnson's belief in the transformative power of art. Robert Pack, an esteemed professor and director of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, employs close readings of cherished texts to explore themes of character, the unconscious, and responsible choices. His insightful reflections reveal the complexities of the human experience through an evolutionary lens. Known for his nature-inspired poetry, Pack's work captures the bittersweet essence of life, earning accolades from literary figures like Mark Strand and Harold Bloom.

Themes of longing and existential exploration permeate this collection of poems, reflecting the author's final year of life. The work delves into the journeys of three seekers, each searching for a physical or conceptual home to find resolution amidst uncertainties. Through poignant sequences, the poems capture the essence of the human experience in the quest for meaning and belonging.

Contemporary commentators have observed that postmodern America is less a melting pot than a buffet table. In American Identities people of diverse ethnic, religious, social, gender, and sexual backgrounds "refuse to merge but insist on a multiplicity of well-maintained identities," editors Robert Pack and Jay Parini explain. This sixth volume in the popular Bread Loaf Anthology series gathers more than three dozen voices who testify that there is no single American Experience, but instead a multiplicity of experiences. These poems, stories, and essays describe in occasionally stark, sometimes humorous, and often moving terms what it means to be black and American, or gay and American, or Latino and American, or Jewish and American within this society