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A Kiss in Space

A Kiss in Space

by Mary Jo Salter

Part of our Arc International Poets series

Mary Jo Salter is the author of three previous collections of poems — the second of which, Unfinished Painting (1989), won the Lamont Selection for the year's most distinguished second volume of poetry — as well as a children's book, The Moon Comes Home (1989). She is also an editor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Her many awards include a year in France on an Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship.

From the first poem, a hot-air balloon trip over Chartres, to the last, the title poem in which an American astronaut visits the Mir space-station, this outstanding fourth collection by American poet Mary Jo Salter — her first to be published in the UK — draws the reader into the long distances of the imagination and the intimacies of the heart.

Poignant poems about her own life (childhood, motherhood) contrast with historical fantasies, and poems inspired by films, travel and works of art. Throughout, there is a richness and sensitivity, an understanding and wit — in the words of an American reviewer, "an exhilarating combination of happiness and intelligence" that make this a remarkable book.

The book of poetry I loved best this year.

Les Murray, TLS

Mary Jo Salter's work embodies the marriage of superb craftsmanship to the tragic sense of reality, which is the formula of true poetry.

Joseph Brodsky

Paperback
88 pages
ISBN 1-900072-45-9
Published January 2000

» About Mary Jo Salter