Jen's Recommended Books:

, edited by Sharon Bryan The essays in this book all respond in widely different ways to T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent". Some protest the patriarchal canon, some formulate a new canon, some divulge intimate responses, and some cry out in the abstract. Included is Eavan Boland's important and inspirational "Outside History". The next best thing to a writers' group - this book helped me feel that I wasn't alone against the "100 Best Books of All Time" (all written and so acclaimed by men). , by Anna Akhmatova, translated by D.M. Thomas Although I am not equipped to read Akhmatova in her original Russian, this translation is the most poetically satisfying I have found of her work. The poems have a sparse, breathy quality suiting the epic, dramatic subject matter. They paint a portrait of an elegance, tortured and brought to its knees, but still dignified!

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