The Ladder: Poems - Softcover

Alan Michael Parker has written eight volumes of poetry and three novels, and edited or co-edited five other books; his numerous awards and fellowships include three Pushcart Prizes, two inclusions in Best American Poetry, the 2012 North Carolina Book Award, and the Randall Jarrell Poetry Award in both 2013 and the 2014. He is Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English at Davidson College and also teaches in the University of Tampa low-residency M.F.A. program.

"What sly elucidation we find here, and what unexpected philosophy. . . . Parker turns over the credos by which we live the way a child turns a toy over in her hands, assuming nothing, open to sense and serendipity. . . . I praise Parker's lightness of hand, a tonal subtlety born of the confident master; . . . we find lines which don't feel like music was added to them so much as they feel like all distractions and infelicities were combed away, revealed the natural music the ear thrills to." -- Beth Ann Fennelly

"[His] poems prove as precise as they are whimsical. Parker moves gracefully between wit and intimacy as he traverses history, masculinity, domesticity, and the restlessness of the human spirit. . . . The Ladder illuminates the rapture of daily experience with unceasing intelligence." -- Tina Chang --Advance Praise