Art history professor publishes collection of art-inspired poems

Can a poetry book be a gallery for art? Brick Road Poetry Press recently published Things Seen, a book of poems inspired by artwork, fairy tales and noh plays by Joseph Stanton, a University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa art history and American studies professor.

Things Seen is Stanton’s fifth book of poems and his second collection of art-inspired poems. He regards it as a continuation of his 1999 book Imaginary Museum: Poems on Art. His research work also involves intersections of the literary and visual, and, as a scholar, he has authored studies of Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Edward Gorey, children’s picture books and ekphrastic poetry, among other topics.

Early comments on the book include poet and editor Ravi Shankar’s declaration that “Joseph Stanton’s Things Seen is one of the best books of poetry this year.”

His works as a poet have special importance for him. He has published more than 400 poems in journals, anthologies and magazines, including Poetry, Harvard Review, New Letters, Antioch Review, Poetry East and New York Quarterly.

In connection with his new collection of poems, New York City’s Poets House asked Stanton in June to present a poetry workshop, “Starting with Art,” which offered perspectives on how responses to artwork can lead to the creation of poems.

Public reading

Stanton will give a free public reading of his poems on Sunday, September 11, 4:30 p.m. at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Art Gallery.

There is no charge for parking on Sundays.

For more information, visit: Things Seen by Joseph Stanton.