Professor Adrienne Perry Highlights Under-Appreciated Poets in Forthcoming Co-edited Poetry Anthology "Other Legacies"
I recently had the chance to speak with Professor Adrienne Perry about her forthcoming co-edited poetry anthology, Other Legacies: Great Unsung American Poets. The book, co-edited by Kevin Prufer and Martin Rock, features contributions from 35 contemporary poets, each introducing a poet of their choice whom they feel has been neglected in literary conversations.
The book arose out of Professor Perry and her co-editors' work on the Unsung Masters Series, an annual publication highlighting the work of an under-appreciated poet. The publication has an associated reading series, for which Professor Perry served as co-host, in which several scholars and writers are invited to come together to read the work of one such neglected poet. Recognizing the value these readings brought to discussions of American poetry, Professor Perry and her co-editors sought to build upon this unique experience in the form of a poetry anthology–one that would notably differ from traditional poetry anthologies in its choice of poets. “While we really respect and revere many poetry anthologies, particularly in terms of contemporary American poetry, we often felt like there were these gaps in terms of who was represented and why,” Professor Perry explains.
To this end, Professor Perry and her co-editors sought out 35 poets whom they felt were specifically excluded from the literary canon on the basis of factors such as race, gender, class, and disability. When curating the list of poets, Professor Perry and her co-editors kept several questions in mind. “We’re always thinking of ‘who have we not heard from? Who is here or not here?’” Professor Perry says. “‘Do we feel that we’re getting enough different aesthetics and viewpoints to try to create this other narrative?’” For Professor Perry, a notable through-line that emerged from the selected poets is that many of them suffered from mental illness: “A number of poets who died prematurely didn’t have the care or understanding they needed to live longer lives in general but also to continue to write poetry and be part of a literary conversation,” she says.
Other Legacies also departs from typical anthologies by nature of its multimedia format. Readers can scan a QR code in the book’s opening pages which will take them to a digital timeline with several threads. One thread lists the publication dates for the featured poets’ works alongside the poets' biographies, while others track the publication of canonical American literary works and, more broadly, the span of literary movements across the 20th and 21st Century. This digital timeline allows readers to view the unsung poets’ work against the backdrop of the dominant narratives of contemporary American poetry. It’s a visual articulation of the book’s argument, Professor Perry says. “It can help to sometimes disrupt our sense of where these periods begin or end and who fits into them.”
With a forthcoming release on December 8th, Other Legacies promises readers a chance to discover their new favorite, unsung poet.
- Nikola Stojcic MA '28