The Neighbor (Phoenix Poets)

The Neighbor is a book of portraits and portraiture. Like the eccentric and mysteriously heroic citizens of E. A. Robinson's Tilbury Town, Collier's figures haunt a startlingly familiar neighborhood. In clear, rich language, Collier reveals the complexities that emerge from his characters' seemingly uneventful lives.

Literature & Fiction

Collier, Michael

Poetry

University of Chicago Press

The Neighbor is a book of portraits and portraiture. Like the eccentric and mysteriously heroic citizens of E. A. Robinson's Tilbury Town, Collier's figures haunt a startlingly familiar neighborhood. In clear, rich language, Collier reveals the complexities that emerge from his characters' seemingly uneventful lives.

Think of a time when you’ve feigned courage to make a friend, feigned forgiveness to keep one, or feigned indifference to simply stay out of it. What does it mean for our intimacies to fail us when we need them most? The poems of this collection explore such everyday dualities—how the human need for attachment is as much a source of pain as of vitality and how our longing for transcendence often leads to sinister complicities. The title poem tells the conflicted and devastating story of the poet’s friendship with the now-disgraced Bishop of Phoenix, Arizona, interweaving fragments of his parents’ funerals, which the Bishop concelebrated, with memories of his childhood spiritual leanings and how they were disrupted by a pedophilic priest the Bishop failed to protect him from. This meditation on spiritual life, physical death, and betrayal is joined by an array of poised, short lyrics and expansive prose poems exploring how the terror and unpredictability of our era intrudes on our most intimate moments. Whether Michael Collier is writing about an airline disaster, Huey Newton’s trial, Thomas Jefferson’s bees, a piano in the woods, or his own fraught friendship with the disgraced Catholic Bishop, his syntactic verve, scrupulously observed detail, and flawless ear bring the felt—and sometimes frightening—dimensions of the mundane to life. Throughout, this collection pursues a quiet but ferocious need to get to the bottom of things.

My Bishop and Other Poems (Phoenix Poets)

A collection of poetry spanning the career of distinguished poet Michael Collier.\nWhether Michael Collier is writing about an airline disaster, a friendship with a disgraced Catholic bishop, his father’s encounter with Charles Lindbergh, Lebanese beekeepers, a mother’s sewing machine, or a piano in the woods, he does so with the syntactic verve, scrupulously observed detail, and a flawless ear that has made him one of America’s most distinguished poets. These poems cross expanses, connecting the fear of missing love and the bliss of holding it, the ways we speak to ourselves and language we use with others, and deep personal grief and shadows of world history.\nThe Missing Mountain brings together a lifetime of work, chronicling Collier’s long and distinguished career as a poet and teacher. These selections, both of previously published and new poems, chart the development of Collier’s art and the cultivations of his passions and concerns.

The Missing Mountain: New and Selected Poems (Phoenix Poets)

Self-Help

Relationships

A cycle of pathbreaking poems about the history of a family set against the backdrop of the last century.An Individual History describes the fears, anger, and guilt―personal, familial, societal, political, and historical―that comprise a life. The figure of the speaker’s maternal grandmother who was institutionalized for five decades serves as an overriding metaphor for this haunting, bold new work by an essential American poet. from “An Individual History” This was before the time of lithium and Zoloft before mood stabilizers and anxiolytics and almost all the psychotropic drugs, but not before thorazine, which the suicide O’Laughlin called “handcuffs for the mind.” It was before, during, and after the time of atomic fallout, Auschwitz, the Nakba, DDT, and you could take water cures, find solace in quarantines, participate in shunnings, or stand at Lourdes among the canes and crutches.

An Individual History: Poems

W.W.Norton&Company

“Profound, emotional, sparing, loving, and sometimes very funny. . . . [Collier is] always the consummate craftsman.”―Poet LoreAn Individual History describes the fears, anger, and guilt―personal, familial, societal, political, and historical―that comprise a life. The figure of the speaker’s maternal grandmother who was institutionalized for five decades serves as an overriding metaphor for this haunting, bold new work by an essential American poet. from “An Individual History” This was before the time of lithium and Zoloft before mood stabilizers and anxiolytics and almost all the psychotropic drugs, but not before thorazine, which the suicide O’Laughlin called “handcuffs for the mind.” It was before, during, and after the time of atomic fallout, Auschwitz, the Nakba, DDT, and you could take water cures, find solace in quarantines, participate in shunnings, or stand at Lourdes among the canes and crutches.

Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence (Writers On Writing)

“Michael Collier’s book is refreshing in its refusal to push for one particular aesthetic. He regards his own preference for realism over abstraction as more a matter of temperament than of considered judgment, and respects poets more skeptical than he is about the ability of poetry to connect with the world. The result is an engaging record of his influences and enthusiasms, which are wide enough to include both Whitman and Larkin, both Jorge Borges and William Maxwell.” —Carl Dennis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Unknown Friends and Practical Gods “Michael Collier combines pietas and wildness in these essays on poetry as inheritance, and poetry as struggle. One feels the young man in his ‘rampage of literature,’ and the older writer reflecting on an art that is at once personal and impersonal, deeply matured in the imagination. This is a wise and well-lived book.” —Rosanna Warren, author of Departure and Stained Glass “The essays and remembrances in Make Us Wave Back radiate Michael Collier’s characteristic insight and sagacity on every page. Clear-minded, ardent, brightly illuminating the art of poetry, this is as lucid as writing about writing gets.” —Campbell McGrath, author of Pax Atomica and Florida Poems National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Michael Collier explores the influences that have made him one of the most distinguished poets of his generation. Make Us Wave Back includes essays on an expansive list of subjects, among them the literary correspondence of William Maxwell; the meaning of the author’s own role as poet laureate of the state of Maryland; the journals of Louise Bogan and how they reveal Bogan’s struggle with her own personal fears as well as the reconstruction of herself as a writer; and many more. Michael Collier is Professor of English and Codirector of the creative writing program at the University of Maryland. He is also director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He is the author of several books of poems, including The Clasp and Other Poems, The Folded Heart, and The Ledge.

History & Criticism

University of Michigan Press

Michael Collier’s book is refreshing in its refusal to push for one particular aesthetic. He regards his own preference for realism over abstraction as more a matter of temperament than of considered judgment, and respects poets more skeptical than he is about the ability of poetry to connect with the world. The result is an engaging record of his influences and enthusiasms, which are wide enough to include both Whitman and Larkin, both Jorge Borges and William Maxwell.”Carl Dennis, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Unknown Friends and Practical Gods Michael Collier combines pietas and wildness in these essays on poetry as inheritance, and poetry as struggle. One feels the young man in his rampage of literature,’ and the older writer reflecting on an art that is at once personal and impersonal, deeply matured in the imagination. This is a wise and well-lived book.”Rosanna Warren, author of Departure and Stained Glass The essays and remembrances in Make Us Wave Back radiate Michael Collier’s characteristic insight and sagacity on every page. Clear-minded, ardent, brightly illuminating the art of poetry, this is as lucid as writing about writing gets.”Campbell McGrath, author of Pax Atomica and Florida Poems National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Michael Collier explores the influences that have made him one of the most distinguished poets of his generation. Make Us Wave Back includes essays on an expansive list of subjects, among them the literary correspondence of William Maxwell; the meaning of the author’s own role as poet laureate of the state of Maryland; the journals of Louise Bogan and how they reveal Bogan’s struggle with her own personal fears as well as the reconstruction of herself as a writer; and many more.Michael Collier is Professor of English and Codirector of the creative writing program at the University of Maryland. He is also director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He is the author of several books of poems, including The Clasp and Other Poems, The Folded Heart, and The Ledge.

The San Andreas Fault is the most famous fault on Earth, running nearly the entire length of western California from just north of the Mexican border to the Mendocino coast. It is a very active tectonic boundary which directly affects the lives of more than twenty million people. The San Andreas Fault has been responsible for shaping much that is beautiful about California, and it also has the capacity to destroy the communities that lie along its course. A Land in Motion provides a geologic tour of the San Andreas Fault in an accessible narrative punctuated with dramatic color illustrations, lively anecdotes, and authoritative information about earthquakes. As he tours the length of the fault, Michael Collier provides a valuable overview of plate tectonics and gives a geologic history of the San Andreas Fault written for non-scientists. He discusses the evolution of seismology as a science and traces the knowledge that scientists have gleaned about earthquakes and plate tectonics from their work on the San Andreas Fault. Collier looks into human history as well, discussing major earthquakes that have hit the San Andreas, including the famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the San Fernando quake of 1971, the Loma Prieta quake of 1989, the Landers quake of 1992, and many lesser temblors. Collier illustrates his text with magnificent photographs that highlight some of the most beloved landscapes in California. He provides excellent views of the fault throughout the state―of Crystal Springs reservoir near San Francisco, of Pinnacles National Monument east of Monterey, of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore near San Francisco, and more. Collier concludes his tour of the San Andreas Fault with a provocative discussion on earthquake prediction versus earthquake planning that all Californians―and all who live where earthquakes occur―will want to read.

A Land in Motion: California's San Andreas Fault

History

Americas

University of California Press

Having landed on the strange planet of Hirath, the Doctor and Sam become separated as they both strive to understand and help the inhabitants of a world where different time zones mean that the planet's biosphere is out of control and heading for disaster.

Longest Day (Dr. Who Series)

Romance

Historical

Bbc Pubns

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Collier, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Collier, Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Collier, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Neighbor (Phoenix Poets)

The Neighbor (Phoenix Poets)

My Bishop and Other Poems (Phoenix Poets)

The Missing Mountain: New and Selected Poems (Phoenix Poets)

An Individual History: Poems

An Individual History: Poems

Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence (Writers On Writing)

Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence (Writers On Writing)

A Land in Motion: California's San Andreas Fault

Longest Day (Dr. Who Series)