American Poetry and the AIDS Epidemic is the first scholarly study examining the role of poetry in processing the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis. Surveying works published since the official recognition of AIDS in 1981, Sally Connolly demonstrates that poetry, with its capacity for linguistic density, symbolic resonance, and formal plasticity, emerged as the preeminent literary medium for exploring the complex dimensions of AIDS. More so than any other disease, AIDS generated a prolific and diverse poetic response that defies easy categorization, serving as an unparalleled means of excavating the profound social, political, and cultural implications of the epidemic. Poetry about AIDS reveals fundamental tensions within poetic language, showing how the epidemic's temporal complexities-including the virus's lengthy latency period and ongoing treatment uncertainties-create psychological and representational challenges that poetry's formal structures can uniquely navigate. Through comprehensive analysis of a poetic corpus spanning more than four decades, Connolly charts the evolution of AIDS poetry from early elegiac responses by poets such as Thom Gunn to contemporary approaches by writers including Danez Smith and Jericho Brown. She examines how different poetic modes-including traditional elegies, fixed forms, and avant-garde techniques-have been tested and transformed by the demands of representing a viral scourge. Her work addresses critical gaps in AIDS literary scholarship by centering previously overlooked voices, particularly African American poets and women writers. Ultimately, American Poetry and the AIDS Epidemic argues that poetry not only helped those directly affected process the epidemic but also shaped broader societal and political consciousness, revealing as much about the purpose and limits of poetry itself as about the changing nature of the epidemic.
