In this book we finally achieve continuity with the origin and application of poetry, which is the communication of the intangible, the indescribable, diverse and discreet experience of life as a human; something that has always been best communicated by the performance of ones own work. The effect is striking, to hear these people speaking their world, their fragments of lifeÆs experience is to bring a sense of humanity to what had been previously isolated by scholarship. This is something that could only have been achieved by the inclusion of audio, not as a gimmick but as an integral component of the anthology as a whole. Think of the affect such a treatment could have if a future Norton Anthology of Short Fiction could have selections from each author read aloud by that author. Hearing these poets I felt as if I could meet these people at the local coffeehouse open mic and sit with them after their recitation to discuss their work and share my own. Perhaps that is the greatest gift of this book; that it acts as a spur to your own creativity by helping to reestablish proper prospective of who these people were and why they were writing.

This book is as thorough and conscientious a piece of work as you may hope to find anywhere. The well thought out table of contents clearly marks each piece for which there is an audio recording while the track list allows you to pinpoint any given poet or work. It is nicely bound and printed in the United States. For each poet there is biographical information as well as recording information and photographs when possible.

I look forward to seeing future projects along the same lines. I highly recommend this book. Hearing is believing!