Jonathan blunk biography

Every biography—in a way, every book—invites readers to examine their own lives, the more we share with their subjects the more so. Jonathan Blunk’s James Wright: A Life in Poetry, the authorized biography of the brilliant, troubled, and influential American poet from my adopted home state of Ohio, led me to a long contemplation of Wright’s life and work, and my own as well.

A longtime Wright scholar who was also involved in the publication of a 2005 volume of Wright’s letters^*, Blunk draws on Wright’s voluminous correspondence, poems, journals, interviews, and many other sources to create what will surely stand as the definitive biography of Wright.

Especially for those who may know him only through a handful of anthologized poems, A Life in Poetry will reinforce Wright’s stature as a major American poet whose obsessive subjects—the plight of the poor, and the redemptive possibilities of language, the natural world, and human solidarity—are as relevant as ever.

Blunk’s new b