Bookcover: Other Psalms

Other Psalms

vol. 22: Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry

Jordan Windholz — author. 
  • Winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry 2014
Subject: Poetry

April, 2015

Published

84

Pages

Recommended Text

Ideal for Classrooms

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About Windholz's Other Psalms

In his debut collection, Jordan Windholz recasts devotional poetics and traces the line between faith and its loss. Other Psalms gives voice to the skeptic who yet sings to the silence that “swells with the noise of listening.” If faith is necessary, this collection suggests, it is necessary as material for its own unmaking. Without a doubt, these are poems worth believing in, announcing, as they do, a new and necessary voice in American poetry.

“Ambitious and exigent, these poems are refreshingly alert to all of the formal necessities of contemporary poetry, recognizing the inadequacy of any single measure to encompass the human longing for presence.” —Averill Curdy, author of Song and Error and judge

“Jordan Windholz’s Other Psalms harmonizes reverie and reverence. This poet recognizes ‘journey and wanderings//as stemming from the same seed.’ Thus the musically dense disciplines of his poems balance an irony and occasional irreverence that make Other Psalms vivid and not simply beautiful. In other words, this book harmonizes human and holy.” —Elizabeth Robinson, author of On Ghosts and Blue Heron

“There is a lushness and sonic abandon in many of these poems that reflects their devotional aspirations, ‘to cradle divinity by flutter or buzz.’ There is also a wryness, even causticity, completely in keeping with the apophatic side of the tradition. The paradox of religious writing, or any writing for that matter, carried out across a life’s changes in circumstances and temperament, requires both extremes in order to stay vivid. A difficult balance to keep, a dangerous tightrope to walk—Other Psalms does it thrillingly.” —Nate Klug, author of Rude Woods and Anyone

From “(psalm)”:

part self, part song
the psalm drags sense from absence
the eclogue anticipates response
verdant and vined, its verges
overtake the tongue…

Classroom Adoption

Other Psalms is a recommended text for use in classrooms where the following subjects are being studied: Creative Writing, Literature, and Poetry.

In his debut collection, Jordan Windholz recasts devotional poetics and traces the line between faith and its loss. Other Psalms gives voice to the skeptic who yet sings to the silence that “swells with the noise of listening.” If faith is necessary, this collection suggests, it is necessary as material for its own unmaking. Without a doubt, these are poems worth believing in, announcing, as they do, a new and necessary voice in American poetry.

Adopted By

[“University of Minnesota for "University Writing"”]

About the Author

JORDAN WINDHOLZ was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with his family. Having received an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, he is currently a PhD candidate in English literature at Fordham University. His work was published in Best New Poets of 2007, Boston Review, and other journals.

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