{"product_id":"the-government-lake-last-poems-james-tate","title":"The Government Lake: Last Poems;  James Tate","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe stunning, startling collection that is also the last work from a major poet\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA woman named Mildred starts laying eggs after feathers from wild poultry begin coming down the chimney. A man becomes friends with a bank robber who abducts him and eventually rues his captor’s death. A baby is born transparent.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJames Tate’s work, filled with unexpected turns and deadpan exaggeration, “fanciful and grave, mundane and transcendent,” (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e) has been among the most defining and significant of our time. In his last collection before his death in 2015, Tate’s dark yet whimsical humor, his emotional acuity, and his keen ear for the absurd are on full display in prose poems that finely constructed and lyrical, surrealistic and provocative.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWith \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Government Lake\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, James Tate reminds us why he is one of the great poets of our age and one of the true masters of the form. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJuly 2, 2019\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"BookPage__mainContent\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"BookPageMetadataSection\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"PageSection\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"TruncatedContent\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-testid=\"contentContainer\" class=\"TruncatedContent__text TruncatedContent__text--medium TruncatedContent__text--expanded\" style=\"text-align: left;\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"DetailsLayoutRightParagraph\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"DetailsLayoutRightParagraph__widthConstrained\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Formatted\"\u003eJames Vincent Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He taught creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he worked since 1971. He was a member of the poetry faculty at the MFA Program for Poets \u0026amp; Writers, along with Dara Wier and Peter Gizzi.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDudley Fitts selected Tate's first book of poems,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"The Lost Pilot\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/965354.The_Lost_Pilot\"\u003eThe Lost Pilot\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(1967) for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while Tate was still a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; Fitts praised Tate's writing for its \"natural grace.\" Despite the early praise he received Tate alienated some of his fans in the seventies with a series of poetry collections that grew more and more strange.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe published two books of prose,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/268504.Dreams_of_a_Robot_Dancing_Bee\"\u003eDreams of a Robot Dancing Bee\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(2001) and\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"The Route as Briefed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/345792.The_Route_as_Briefed\"\u003eThe Route as Briefed\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(1999). His awards include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, a Pulitzer Prize in poetry, a National Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTate's writing style is difficult to describe, but has been identified with the postmodernist and neo-surrealist movements. He has been known to play with phrases culled from news items, history, anecdotes, or common speech; later cutting, pasting, and assembling such divergent material into tightly woven compositions that reveal bizarre and surreal insights into the absurdity of human nature.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003chr role=\"presentation\" class=\"Divider Divider--largeMargin\"\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"lazyload-wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"NativeAdWrapper\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"FREEAIR Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45536285884738,"sku":"","price":8.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/8735\/3154\/files\/govlake.jpg?v=1688930697","url":"https:\/\/shop.freeairbooks.com\/products\/the-government-lake-last-poems-james-tate","provider":"FREEAIR Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}