Poems explore a variety of themes including love, faith, redemption, spirituality, nature, and childhood

Swan's Island

Literature & Fiction

Spires, Elizabeth

History & Criticism

Henry Holt Co.

A collection of poems by the 20th century poet dealing with themes such as the longing for love, faith and redemption.

Annonciade (Poets, Penguin)

Literary

Puffin

Spinning, I can't stop spinning, so stay a minute, and I, Arachne, will spin a story for you . . .
In this singular collection, the heroes and heroines of fifteen Greek and Roman tales give their own dramatic accounts of events. From the magnificent spinner Arachne, who learns that a mortal should never challenge a god, to the god Pan, who prefers Earth to Mount Olympus, to the beautiful, self-indulgent Pandora and the gold-stricken Midas―the reader becomes a confidant to the tellers of these sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, always engaging tales of wonder, woe, romantic love, and jealousy. Mordicai Gerstein's energetic, whimsical illustrations combine with Elizabeth Spires's playful renditions for a totally fresh take on familiar and not-so-familiar myths.

I Am Arachne: Fifteen Greek and Roman Myths

Children's Books

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

Square Fish

Short, snappy, and accessible In this singular collection, the heroes and heroines of fifteen Greek and Roman tales give their own dramatic, first-person accounts of events. From the magnificent spinner Arachne, who learns that a mortal should never challenge a god, to the god Pan, who prefers Earth to Mount Olympus, to the beautiful, self-indulgent Pandora and the gold-stricken Midas -- the reader becomes a confidant to the tellers of these sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, always engaging tales of wonder, woe, romantic love, and jealousy. Mordicai Gerstein's energetic, whimsical illustrations combine with Elizabeth Spires' playful renditions for a totally fresh take on familiar and not-so-familiar myths.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

One night in the early 1930s, William Edmondson, the son of former slaves and a janitor in Nashville, Tennessee, heard God speaking to him. And so he began to carve – tombstones, birdbaths, and stylized human figures, whose spirits seemed to emerge fully formed from the stone. Soon Edmondson's talents caught the eye of prominent members of the art world, and in 1937 he became the first black artist to have a solo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 
Here, in twenty-three free-verse poems, award-winning poet Elizabeth Spires gives voice to Edmondson and his creations, which tell their individual stories with wit and passion. With stunning photographs, including ten archival masterpieces by Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Edward Weston, this is a compelling portrait of a truly original American artist.

I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

A mouse's-eye-view of Emily Dickinson
When a mouse named Emmaline takes up residence behind the wainscoting of Emily Dickinson's bedroom, she wonders what it is that keeps Emily scribbling at her writing table throughout the day and into the night. Emmaline sneaks a look, and finds that it's poetry! Inspired, Emmaline writes her own first poem and secretly deposits it on Emily's desk. Emily answers with another poem, and a lively exchange begins. In this charming and fanciful introduction to Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Spires demonstrates the power of poetry to express our deepest feelings, while Claire A. Nivola's delicate pencil drawings capture the intricacies of life in Emily's world. Included are eight of Dickinson's most loved poems, with seven corresponding poems by Emmaline that are sure to bring out the poet in any child.

The Mouse of Amherst

In her beautiful new collection of poems Elizabeth Spires addresses the elemental subjects of life and literature: birth, death, creation, and intimations of immortality. Elizabeth Spires writes poems that are distinguished by an immaculate lyricism, a pristine sense of the natural world and the rhythms of language. Hers is a sensibility anchored in both the real and the mystical.

Worldling

Poetry

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Now the Green Blade Rises: Poems

Opening with a powerful sequence of poems about her mother's death, Elizabeth Spires writes about the life-and-death matters of midlife: the separation of parent from child, the loss of family and friends, the evolving nature of our closest friendships. These poems find hope in the seasonal and spiritual moment when "the green blade rises."

W.W.Norton&Company

A contemplative, witty new collection from a "jewel of a poet" (Los Angeles Times). In Elizabeth Spires's sixth collection of poetry, the pilgrim soul, in its various guises, meditates on its own slow becoming, finding humble companions in creatures as unlikely as a lowly snail, a prehistoric coelacanth, or a tiny Japanese netsuke of a badger disguised as a monk. For Spires, life is both a pilgrimage and a deepening―birth, death, and transformation all part of a seamless continuum. Possessed of a calm, crystalline sense of eternity, her poems invite fellow travelers to sit for a little while and be cleansed of the dust of existence.

The Wave-Maker: Poems

“With not one wrong move, not one word off-key or trivial, this collection of poems makes us experience intimate, yet not necessarily personal, contact with the poet who lets us at times see the struggle behind the refined sensibility. . . .Spires asks the big questions with such competence and polish that we admire her sweating, our metaphysical gladiator, guarantor of our considerable pleasure.” ―Nancy Nahra, Philadelphia Inquirer Winner of a 1996 Whiting Award. In her fourth collection of poems Elizabeth Spires addresses the elemental subjects of life and of literature: birth, death, creation, and intimations of immortality. The first section focuses on the experiences of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth from the points of view of both mother and child. The second section offers a reversal and reply in which the poems move out into a divided and divisive world. These poems are distinguished by an immaculate lyricism, a pristine sense for the natural world and the rhythms of language.

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

Books by Spires, Elizabeth

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

Swan's Island

Annonciade (Poets, Penguin)

I Am Arachne: Fifteen Greek and Roman Myths

I Am Arachne: Fifteen Greek and Roman Myths

I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings

The Mouse of Amherst

Worldling

Now the Green Blade Rises: Poems

The Wave-Maker: Poems

Worldling