The University of Michigan Press has released a new volume in its Under Discussion series that highlights the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Forrest Gander. This collection features essays and interviews from a variety of poets, novelists, critics, and translators, including Charles Altieri, Stephanie Burt, Julia Fiedorczuk, Jorie Graham, Dan Beachy-Quick, Srikanth Reddy, and Jeanette Winterson.
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The contributions delve into Gander’s poetry, fiction, and translations, exploring themes such as the natural world, love, companionship, loss, and renewal. The essays reflect on Gander’s influence on other writers and his collaborative nature. Editor Robert Baker notes in the introduction that Gander stands out for integrating the work of other artists into his poetry. Baker describes Gander’s books as creating “an open field of creative interdependence,” where receptivity and activity, attention and invention are intertwined. This notion suggests that Gander's oeuvre exists in a dynamic interplay of life and art.