<div><p>"One of the few poets whose work remains accessible to both scholars of poetry and the casual reader. . . . Her finely wrought free-form verse reads as easily as prose despite its dense, lush imagery."?<I>The Harvard Review</I></p><p>"Working in free verse, Murray is a master of the single unforgettable detail. Her accessible image-driven narratives harness the urgency of their moral or social context while staying true to the pacing and music of daily life."?The Poetry Foundation (publisher of <I>Poetry</I> magazine)</p><p><I>Swimming for the Ark</I> demonstrates why Joan Murray is praised as one of the leading narrative poets of our time. This career-defining book offers twenty-two new poems along with generous selections from her earlier books: <I>The Same Water</I> (winner of the Wesleyan New Poets Series), <I>Looking for the Parade</I> (winner of the National Poetry Series Open Competition), <I>Queen of the Mist</I> (the Niagara narrative which won her a Broadway commission), and <I>Dancing on the Edge</I>.</p><p>This highly engaging book vividly dramatizes an urban youth and a rural life, along with deeper concerns about history, art, and injustice.</p><p><B>From "Doorway":</B></p><p><I>Of course we said we'd help you?<BR>the cops were after you, you said, and we were<BR>rebel girls, weren't we? the four of us fifteen,<br>the same age you said you were, when we<br>crammed together in the doorway of a gated store,<BR>the windows full of knives, vibrators, transistor radios.<BR>I was the only one who understood:<br>Lemony blond, sweet-voiced for a boy,<br>you hid behind our Tangee lipstick, our teased-up<BR>hair-dos, the wispy-angora sweaters I can see<br>in the photo-booth photos I still have here . . . </I></p><p>Joan Murray is the author of four prize-winning collections (from W. W. Norton, Wesleyan, and Beacon Press). She has been a repeat guest on NPR's <I>Morning Edition</I> and is editor of the <I>Poems to Live By</I> anthologies and <I>The Pushcart Book of Poetry</I>.</p><BR></div>