Louise Erdrich is one of those multifaceted writers who can deftly maneuver the demands of poet, novelist and critic. Succeeding in both critically and popularly in each category, her work has established her at the forefront of the "Native American Renaissance". Accordingly, many have compared he
In 1968, when an interviewer asked Jorge Luis Borges what he thought of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, the great explorer of the literary labyrinth responded, "Who is he?" Portugal, alas, is one of the most overlooked outposts of Europe. The North's snobbery towards the South is one of the caus
There is a particular grunt, sputter, and song in a Heaney poem: "Perch on their water perch hung in the clear Bann River/Near the clay bank in alder dapple and waver." This is another poet in love with his language -- specifically, the cadences of the Irish tongue. The sounds of clattering, bumping,
In 1797 a young brother and sister executed one of the more intriguing moves in the history of English literature: William and Dorothy Wordsworth took up residence in Alfoxden, Somersetshire, a stone's throw from Samuel Coleridge's home in Nether Stowey. The three would form the most productive liter