Gregory Djanikian’s Nostalgia for the Future: New and Selected Poems, written over several decades, takes for its many subjects romantic love and its difficulties, the horrors of the Armenian genocide of 1915, the émigré experience and the joys and struggles of acculturation, the allure of landscapes and vast distances, the polarity of our material life on earth and our longing for what is ethereal and elusive, all in tones that are humorous, elegiac, contemplative, lyrical, and suffused with a gratitude for the mysteriousness and wonder of life itself.
Praise for the Poetry of Gregory Djankian
Relying mainly on traditional forms and techniques to celebrate ordinary human experiences, Djanikian has the gift of surprising and delighting us on every page….Whether writing about country or city, his Armenian family history or biblical events remoter still, Djanikian has a clear voice and a clear, accessible vision. With The Man in the Middle, he is off to a most auspicious start.
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“. . .Djanikian is masterful in his control of where a poem is going—and the reader with it. . . .”
—Booklist
“Falling Deeply into America is one of the most even-tempered and joyful collections I’ve encountered recently. . . . And in the Waspy realms of American poetry, it is a unique and welcome point of view.”
—Henri Cole, Poetry
“. . .This is a message for poets and all of us who insist on a hard cleanliness in the emotional surface of poems. If poems are about distance, insofar as they are intended to touch us, perhaps they must be allowed to work the veins of sentiment, and flirt with nostalgia.”
—Alec Marsh, Boston Book Review
“. . .Tone dictates what attitude the reader will take toward content, and Djanikian masterfully modulates tone, playing something in each key in order to give us the full range of experience.”
—Judith Kitchen, The Georgia Review
“. . . So I Will Till the Ground isn’t just important poetry, it is great poetry. It illuminates Armenian culture and the lives of all kinds of immigrants in American society. This is a volume you should read. It is a volume you’ll be glad to read.”
—Alan Jalowitz, WPSU radio
“. . . Djanikian reflects on social issues, relationships, family history, domestic life, and our connection to nature, always conscious of our place in the larger world. . . . Poets will study this book to learn how Djanikian works such magic. . . .”
—Kathleen Aguero, Solstice Magazine
“. . . The lines could well be a description of this reader’s response: thankfulness for the many genius notes and words that are now here in this collection for all of us to be grateful for.”
—Julia Alvarez
About the Poet
Born in Alexandria, Egypt of Armenian parentage, Gregory Djanikian came to the United States when he was 8 years old and spent his boyhood in Williamsport, PA. For many years, he was the Director of Creative Writing at the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of seven collections of poetry from Carnegie Mellon, most recently of which is Sojourners of the In-Between. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, and in many anthologies including Best American Poetry, Good Poems, American Places (Viking), Killer Verse: Poems of Murder and Mayhem (Knopf), Seriously Funny (Georgia), Becoming Americas: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing (Library of America), Poem in Your Pocket (The Academy of American Poets), Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond (Norton), and 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day (Random House).
Author’s website: https://gregorydjanikian.com/
SPECS
Nostalgia for the Future
Poetry
Paperback Original
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 258
Price: $19.95 (CA $26.95)
ISBN: 979-8-9904801-5-5
Publication Date: APRIL, 2025
Distributor: IPG/Chicago, Ingram.
Rights sold: All rights available.
Rights: Dede Cummings, dede@greenwriterspress.com
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