Dot

In this new poetry collection, Pulitzer Prize finalist Ron Padgett illuminates the wonders inside things that don’t even exist—and then they do.

In Dot, Ron Padgett returns with more of the playfully profound work that has endeared him to generations of readers. Guided by curiosity and built on wit, generosity of spirit, and lucid observation, Dot shows how any experience, no matter how mundane, can lead to a poem that flares like gentle fireworks in the night sky of the reader’s mind.

Publication date: November 1, 2022 

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6 x 9

Page count: 120 pages

ISBN: 9781566896559

Ron Padgett’s How Long was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry, and his Collected Poems won the LA Times Prize for the best poetry book of 2014 and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America (PSA). He has also received the Shelley Memorial Award and the Frost medal from the PSA. His translations include Zone: Selected Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars’s Complete Poems. Seven of his poems were used in Jim Jarmusch’s film Paterson. New York City has been his home base since 1960.

“A breezy and nostalgic collection reflecting on the quotidian and the momentous. . . . Padgett remains charmingly whimsical, and the more heartfelt entries are a testament to his status as one of the great living American poets.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A refreshing read for its wisdom and levity, or perhaps for the wisdom in its levity. . . . Padgett’s loose associations feel both delightfully surprising and completely natural.”

—Sarah Barch, The Arkansas International

“Though the work is comforting, it’s an ode, not a lullaby—this read is a page turner. The real magic of the collection stems from its ability to fully immerse the reader in a fantastical yet familiar world. . . . A fulfilling and immersive experience from cover to cover and somehow still manages to leave readers wanting more.”

—Aiden J. Bowers, The Harvard Crimson