The Pilot House

Poetry. When The Pilot House was chosen for the 2009 Black River Chapbook, the judges wrote, The poems in this chapbook made us ache; that's how good they are. Rigsbee turns in this collection to spare poems that deal with pivots, revealing incidents when a momentary shift in perspective can bring a whole new world into view--or eclipse a once-firmly held memory. Clear and taut, insistent on the beauty of even harrowing events, it is a collection that handles the past in arresting ways, some potentially redemptive, others turning from reclamation's siren. Poems about figures as varied as philosopher Richard Rorty, artist Nicholas Carone, astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, and poets William Bronk and Joseph Brodsky, call upon a richly lived writerly life in ways that give the collection purpose and dignity.

About the Author :
David Rigsbee is the author of 19 books and chapbooks, including THE DISSOLVING ISLAND (BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2003), THE PILOT HOUSE (Black Lawrence Press, 2011), and SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (Black Lawrence Press, 2012). In addition to his poems, he has also published critical works on Carolyn Kizer and Joseph Brodsky. He has co-edited two anthologies, including Invited Guest: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Southern Poetry, a notable book selection of the American Library Association and the American Association of University Professors and featured on C-Span Booknotes. His work has appeared in AGNI, The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, The Ohio Review, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, and many others. He is the recipient of two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a NEH summer fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. His other awards include The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown fellowship, The Virginia Commission on the Arts literary fellowship, The Djerassi Foundation and Jentel Foundation residencies, and an Award from the Academy of American Poets. Winner of a 2012 Pushcart Prize, the Vachel Lindsay Poetry Award and the Pound Prize, he was also 2010 winner of the Sam Ragan Award for contribution to the arts in North Carolina. Black Lawrence Press will publish his collection of essays on contemporary poetry, A Poetry Chronicle, next year. Rigsbee is currently contributing editor for The Cortland Review.