Poets at work

the long version

"Poets, students, teachers, and friends--this anthology was made for you. The issue of many, 'Poets at work: ... ' grew out of a 'just buffalo' Writers-in-Education project -- The Contemporary Poets Connection -- to fill a need ... It was actually 1984 when ... this project and book [was drafted]. After lamenting the absence of contemporary poetry from his then high school daughter's studies, the poet Ed Sanders suggested in the early 1980's that 'just buffalo' publish a textbook ... [The] dream behind 'Poets at work: ... ' was to create a text based on the actual exchanges students and teachers had with contemporary and ethnically diverse writers whose works they studied. The format of the present anthology directly reflects the process and the content of the Contemporary Poets Connection's (CPC) workshops. [The book] relies on the writer's voice to convey a universe of place, its diverse peoples -- their stories, countenance, and face. Selected from across the United States to weave a tapestry of American culture, these poets reveal 'the things that make us human and wonderful and separate and individual ... '