Jay Parini is an American writer and academic. He is known for novels and poetry, biography and criticism. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1970 and was awarded a doctorate by the University of St. Andrews in 1975. Parini taught at Dartmouth College from 1975 to 1982 and has been on the faculty of Middlebury College since 1982. He is a regular contributor to various journals and newspapers, including The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Guardian. In 1976, he co-founded New England Review with Sydney Lea.
"With gentle insistence, Parini's book makes the case that poetry is worth reading-indeed, that it must be read-especially in a dark time like our own."-Christopher Benfey, author of Degas in New Orleans and The Great Wave -- Christopher Benfey "Jay Parini celebrates not simply poetry but glorious life itself. He shows that poetry can quicken the mind, purge damp melancholy from the cold heart, and spread goldenrod across fallen days."-Samuel Pickering, author of Autumn Spring and Letters to a Teacher -- Samuel Pickering "With the light touch and intelligent eye of a great teacher, Jay Parini makes this concise little book a marvel, plumbing the depths of the reasons for poetry and the underpinnings of the art from metaphor to vision, from nature to politics . Beginning with that notorious anti-poet Plato and stopping off for brief conversations with Shelley, Wordsworth, Stevens, Eliot and even Louise Gluck, Parini gives us a generous, knowledgeable tour of why poetry matters to us now. Parini is a scintillating guide to the unfathomable, and he will be welcomed both by poets and by anyone intrigued-or baffled-by poetry. This is the perfect hip-pocket compendium of signposts to Poetryland."-Molly Peacock, poet and creative nonfiction writer, author of Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems. -- Molly Peacock "If you are going to tell Jay Parini that poetry doesn't matter, you should probably start working on your debate points now-he's got a lot more."-Jessie Forand, Burlington Free Press -- Jessie Forand Burlington Free Press
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