''Versed'' is a book of poetry written by Rae Armantrout and published by

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present for ...

in 2009 (see 2009 in poetry). It won the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry after being named a finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

. Armantrout is only the third poet to win two out of these three awards in one year.

Awards

As part of a lead-in to their awards announcement, NBCC board member James Marcus called ''Versed'' a collection of "vigilant, often beautiful poems

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

seem to reset the reader’s mental instrumentation—what Armantrout calls the '

whirligig A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one part that spins or whirls. It can also be a pinwheel, spinning top, buzzer, comic weathervane, gee-haw, spinner, whirlygig, whirlijig, whirlyjig, whirlybird, or simply a whirly ...

/ of attention, / the figuring and / reconfiguring / of charges / among orbits / (obits) / that has taken forever.'" According to the Pulitzer Prize Board, ''Versed'' is a "book striking for its wit and linguistic inventiveness, offering poems that are often little thought-bombs detonating in the mind long after the first reading."

References

{{reflist

External links

''Versed''
from

Author/Poet Rae Armantrout 10/17/09
from

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, reading from ''Versed'' at Litquake PubCrawl,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

2009 poetry books American poetry collections Pulitzer Prize for Poetry-winning works National Book Critics Circle Award-winning works Wesleyan University Press books