First published 2019
Elizabeth A. Schultz presents sixty-one contemporary poems that draw inspiration from Herman Melville's oceanic masterwork. Written since 2000 by thirty-three American poets, these verses respond to Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit, Ishmael's observations, and the vast seascape of the Pequod's doomed voyage. The collection emerged from a national call for submissions that yielded approximately one hundred poems, from which editors selected works by both emerging voices and established poets like Dan Beachy-Quick and Jessica Cuello. Two contributors, Laurie Robertson-Lorant and Everett Hoagland, live in New Bedford, the historic whaling port where Melville's tale begins. The anthology divides into two sections that either follow the novel's narrative structure and characters or explore broader themes from Melville's work. These modern poets find new meaning in the white whale's symbolic power and the sea's endless mysteries.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, poetry, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: literary-adaptation
Setting: New Bedford
Period: 2000s
124 pages · Paperback · Spinner Publications, Inc.