it was today

Andrei Codrescu’s new work is the perfect tonic for America’s political, literary, and cultural hangovers.

In praise of Andrei Codrescu’s poetry, Harper’s says “his command of language is superb, his writing beautifully original, and his insights piercing.” Part genius, part tongue-in-cheek provocateur, Codrescu is an audacious and passionate poet whose new work is the perfect tonic for America’s political, literary, and cultural hangovers. The heart of Codrescu’s first new collection in nearly a decade is a beautiful conceit containing the “recently discovered” correspondence between a warrior and a courtesan in fourteenth-century China. The rest of it was today contains poems about modern life and millennial malaise that are both unsparing and intimate, inventive and playful.

Publication date: September 1, 2003

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6.75 x 9.75

Page count: 160 pages

ISBN: 97815668914622

Andrei Codrescu, World Heavyweight Champion Poet, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter, was born in Sibiu, Romania, in 1946, and immigrated to the United States in 1966. Author, translator, and anthologist of some two dozen books, including Comrade Past & Mister Present and it was today, Codrescu has edited the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse and his provocative commentary is featured regularly on National Public Radio’s award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered. His honors include the Peabody Award for his film Road Scholar, the Big Table Poetry Award, and the Literature Prize of the Romanian Cultural Foundation, as well as National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for poetry, editing, and radio. Codrescu currently resides in New Orleans, and is MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

“Reading it was today, today, you will feel much better about your tomorrows.”

—Anselm Hollo