If a literary movement arises but no one notices, is it still a movement? In Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology, editor Dennis Wilson Wise argues that the answer is "yes." Over the last ten decades, poets working in fantasy, science fiction, and horror have collectively brought forth a revival in alliterative poetics akin to what once happened in the mid-fourteenth century. Altogether, this anthology collects for the first time over fifty speculative poets-several of whom previously unpublished-from across North America and Europe. Alongside such established names as C. S. Lewis, Patrick Rothfuss, Edwin Morgan, Poul Anderson, Jo Walton, P. K. Page, and W. H. Auden, this anthology also includes representative texts from cultural movements such as contemporary neo-Paganism and the Society for Creative Anachronism. A lengthy critical introduction by the editor-written accessibly for a general audience-explains and contextualizes the Modern Revival for critics and readers alike, and extensive footnotes offer aids to anyone new to medieval history or Norse mythology. Overall, this indispensable anthology-the first major academic book to focus on speculative poetry-establishes where the medieval meets the modern in the hitherto unrecognized Alliterative Revival.
Dennis Wilson Wise is professor of practice and director of undergraduate studies in the English Department at the University of Arizona.
Part I: The Early Revival C. S. LEWIS JOHN D. NILES FLETCHER PRATT and L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP JOHN MYERS MYERS POUL ANDERSON AVRAM DAVIDSON L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP EDWIN MORGAN DARRELL SCHWEITZER PAUL EDWIN ZIMMER (A) ROBERT A. COOK DIANA L. PAXSON Part II: Society for Creative Anachronism ANNE ETKIN PAUL EDWIN ZIMMER (B) JERE FLECK BARCHAN THE KIPCHAK PETER N. SCHWEITZER DAVID FRIEDMAN RON SNOW SANDRA B. STRAUBHAAR CHRISTIE WARD FRIDA WESTFORD JOHN RUBLE MARY K. SAVELLI ANA KEVENEY LEIGH ANN HUSSEY BETH MORRIS TANNER DANIEL MARSH ROBERT CUTHBERT M. WENDY HENNEQUIN Part III: Later Revivalists MARCIE LYNN TENTCHOFF JAMES DORR JO WALTON MICHAEL R. COLLINGS FRANK COFFMAN PAUL DOUGLAS DEANE ADAM BOLIVAR MICHAEL MCAFEE JOSHUA GAGE PATRICK ROTHFUSS RAHUL GUPTA MARY ALEXANDRA AGNER MIKE BIERSCHENK MICHAELA MACHA MATH JONES Part IV: Speculative Adjacent Poems JAMES BLISH P. K. PAGE GEORGE JOHNSTON EARLE BIRNEY W. H. AUDEN C. DAY-LEWIS JOHN HEATH-STUBBS CARTER REVARD FRED CHAPPELL MATTHEW DICKERSON Appendices Appendix A: Letter to the Editor of Star*Line, by Steve Rasnic Appendix B: Metrical Essay on Three Alliterative Traditions Appendix C: "The True Critics," by Paul Edwin Zimmer Appendix D: A Selected Bibliography
