E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Nick Asbury reviews Works & Days by Dean Rader I won’t be the only British reader to do a double-take on seeing the ‘2010 T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize’ text on the front cover of this book. It turns out it’s a different prize run by the Truman State University Press in Eliot’s native Missouri. It’s an immediate jolt to remind you that you’re leaving the small world of British poetry behind and entering the vast expanses of America. Dean Rader’s book is full of vast expanses. The title is taken directly from Hesiod (a bold reference for a debut collection). The original was a key work of classical literature: a farmers’ almanac instructing the writer’s brother on how to work the land in the midst of a farming crisis. Rader comes from a different place and time: born and raised in Oklahoma, he is now professor of English at the University of San Francisco. But there’s a convincing sense of a connection across the centuries: both writers share a concern with land, labour and language. ...