Something is wrong.' - 'Night'Frederick Seidel - the 'ghoul' (Chicago Review), the 'triumphant outsider' (Contemporary Poetry Review) - returns with a dangerous new collection of poems. Nice Weather presents the sexual and political themes that have long preoccupied Seidel - and thrilled and offended his readers.
The poems in this collection are characterized by their provocative and unflinching nature, pushing boundaries with skillful craftsmanship. Readers may find themselves shocked by the daring themes and unsettling imagery that challenge conventional sensibilities. The work invites a visceral reaction, compelling an appreciation for the audacity and technical prowess of the poet, while confronting darker aspects of human experience.
An overview of Frederick Seidel's best and most famous poetry from the past five decades, showing the evolution of a master poet’s craft Frederick Seidel has been hailed as "the poet of a new contemporary form" (Dan Chiasson, The New York Review of Books) and "the most frightening American poet ever" (Calvin Bedient, Boston Review). The poems in Frederick Seidel Selected Poems span more than five decades and provide readers with some of Seidel's most powerful work. Frederick Seidel is, in the words of the critic Adam Kirsch, "the best American poet writing today."
With poems that seem earnest one moment and flippant the next, this book includes poems that deal with high-society cocktail parties to street-level poverty, genocide to Obamacare, New York to Syria.
The collected poems showcase the mastery of Frederick Seidel, featuring a blend of compelling, savage, and tender themes. Renowned for his unique voice, Seidel's work is celebrated for its emotional depth and sharpness, earning him recognition as one of the foremost American poets of his time, as noted by critic Adam Kirsch.
The exuberant new collection from a 'beguiling and magisterial' poet (The New York Times Book Review).
'Seidel grips the twentieth century between his teeth like a blade as he speaks. He is one of the more formidable poets of the last third of the century.' Calvin Bedient, Poetry 'He is scary, but funny, but scary. You would have go back to confessional masters like Lowell and Berryman to find poetry as daringly self-revealing, as risky and compelling, as the best of Frederick Seidel's.' Adam Kirsch, The New York Sun 'The moral thrills of his poetry can be as daunting as the moral spills, the cruel intelligence of glamour as alluring as the mystical stillness that is somewhere also at the heart of his poetry.' Adam Phillips, Raritan 'The poems in Ooga-Booga are the richest yet and read like no one else's: they're surreal, utterly unpretentious, and suffused with the peculiar American loneliness of Raymond Chandler. While I can think of a more likable book of poems, I can scarcely imagine a better one.' Alex Halberstadt, New York magazine 'Ooga-Booga is as beguiling and magisterial as anything Seidel has written. I can't decide whether he has more in common with Philip Larkin or John Ashbery, but the fact that Seidel can prompt such a bizarre question is more revealing than any possible answer.' The New York Times Book Review
Britain's most prestigious literary magazine brings you the very best new fiction, memoir, reportage, poetry, photography and art from around the world. Granta consistently publishes innovative and prize-winning writing in each quarterly issue, such as 'Rain' by Colin Barrett and 'The Room-Service Waiter' by Tom Crewe (both winners of the 2024 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction), as well as 'Theories of Care' by Sophie Mackintosh, which won the 2024 Pushcart Prize.
This collection provides readers with a perpetually exciting, compact edition of the revolutionary poet's most powerful work. Frederick Seidel has been hailed as 'the poet of a new contemporary form' (New York Review of Books), and 'the most frightening American poet ever' (Boston Review).
“One of the world’s most inspired and unusual poets . . . [Seidel’s] poems are a triumph of cosmic awe in the face of earthly terror.” —Hillel Italie, USA Today Frederick Seidel has been called many things. A “transgressive adventurer,” “a demonic gentleman,” a “triumphant outsider,” “a great poet of innocence,” and “an example of the dangerous Male of the Species,” just to name a few. Whatever you choose to call him, one thing is certain: “he radiates heat” ( The New Yorker ). Now add to that: the poet of aging and decrepitude. Widening Income Inequality , Seidel’s new poetry collection, is a rhymed magnificence of sexual, historical, and cultural exuberance, a sweet and bitter fever of Robespierre and Obamacare and Apollinaire, of John F. Kennedy and jihadi terror and New York City and Italian motorcycles. Rarely has poetry been this true, this dapper, or this dire. Seidel is “the most poetic of the poets and their leader into hell.”
