Synopses & Reviews
This landmark anthology, the first of its kind, takes it impulse from the words of Bertolt Brecht: "In these dark times, will there also be singing? / Yes, there will be singing. / About the dark times."
Bearing witness to extremity — whether of war, torture, exile, or repression — the volume encompasses more than 140 poets from five continents, over the span of this century from the Armenian genocide to Tiananmen Square.
Review
"Poetry cannot block a bullet or still a , but it can bear witness to brutality — thereby cultivating a flower in a graveyard. Carolyn Fourché's is itself a blow against tyranny, against prejudice, against injustice. It bears witness to the evil we would prefer to forget, but never can — and never should." Nelson Mandela
Review
"In a class by itself, edited and and introduced with precise passion and Olympian breadth, encapsulates both the horrors of our century and the power of musical language to make a place to live, breathe, hope, love." Calvin Bedient
Review
"From every continent comes the news that our age is an age of murder and repression on a scale unimagined before. And yet I can't peruse this book without marveling at what beauty these writers have made of the calamity called the Twentieth Century. I would not have thought a poetry anthology could be so stirring." Arthur Miller
About the Author
Carolyn Forché, poet, translator, and activist, is professor of English at Georgetown University. She has published two award-winning volumes of poetry, Gathering the Tribes and The Country Between Us. In 1990 Ms. Fourché received a Lannan Literary Award, granted to poets and writers of literary excellence "whose work promotes a truer understanding of contemporary life." Her most recent volume of poetry is Blue Hour.