Denise Levertov in Company

"The sweep and variety of these essays will give this collection longevity not common in such efforts. As Eavan Boland says, Levertov was a defining poet . . . whose stature grows as the years pass. These essays will keep alive her memory and spur renewed appreciation of her life and work in a new generation of readers and scholars."—Ed Block, Emeritus Professor of English, Marquette University

"Denise Levertov in Company is a remarkable and unique collection of essays. We see Levertov's life and work through very intelligent compassionate eyes, . . . This is prose doing much of the work of poetry."—Charles F. Altieri, University of California, Berkeley

"Donna Hollenberg has followed her excellent biography of Levertov with this fascinating collection of essays placing Levertov at the center of a creative dialogue with fellow poets and writers, about the sources and ends and craft of poetry. Taken together, these essays offer not just an examination of poetic influence but a multi-faceted inquiry into the creative process."—Albert Gelpi, Stanford University

"What Hollenberg has done with this collection of essays is to organize them meaningfully. For instance, Paul Lacey writes about both Levertov and her former student Mark Pawlak (who is now a published poet), and Lacey's essay ties that part of the book together. A very useful collection."—Linda Wagner-Martin, Frank Borden Hanes Professor of English emerita, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"A fascinating portrait of Levertov as strong-willed teacher and mentor through the intensely personal lens of younger poets who share—and resist—her commitments and craft. Critical essays provide a context in which the poets' tributes resonate to develop the continuing significance of Levertov's most controversial poetry—political and religious."—Anne Dewey, Saint Louis University-Madrid