The Naomi Poems

The debut collection from Bill Knott that influenced a generation of poets and rockstars is now back-in-print for the first time in almost 60 years and includesa new introduction byRichard Hell.

Bill Knott's first book, The Naomi Poems: Corpse and Beans, was written under the pen name St. Geraud, the fictional persona of "a virgin and a suicide" who allegedly died two years prior to publication. The Naomi Poems was received to great acclaim and brought him to the attention of such poets as James Wright, who called Knott an "unmistakable genius." It also went on to inspire generations of fellow writers-from James Tate to Mary Ruefle to Denis Johnson. While first editions have become treasured collector's items today, and its poems mixed and remixed into numerous anthologies over the decades, The Naomi Poems is finally available in its original form for the first time since its original publication.

"Bill Knott writes stunning poems in which he wires the head to the heart in such surprising ways that the results are truly electrifying. More than anyone of his generation, he shows us just how wild American poetry can be."-Billy Collins

"There's no other poet like Bill Knott."-Yusef Komunyakaa

“Knott began his career to acclaim and controversy with The Naomi Poems”—The New York Times Book Review

“In The Naomi Poems, his first book, he already knew how to put together a perfect patch of verse“—The New Yorker

“Knott’s poems relentlessly compress language and his lines distill to their throbbing quick.”—Publishers Weekly

“There’s no other poet like Bill Knott.”—Yusef Komunyakaa

“His work is tender, strange, deeply pained, and full of wit. He owes a little coin to Hopkins, a little to several others, no doubt, but Knott, in the end, is sui generis.”—Kim Addonizio

Bill Knott

was born in Carson City, Michigan, in 1940 and died in Bay City, Michigan, in 2014. In the years between, Knott traveled the country-eventually settling in Boston-and proceeded to publish eleven full-length books of poems and was awarded both the Iowa Poetry Prize and a Guggenheim fellowship. From French surrealism to the avant-garde and back again, Knott's electrifying verse perpetually innovated the poetic form while avoiding any one school of poetry. Viscerally accessible yet nonetheless a poet's poet inspiring multiple generations of writers and artists, his influence on contemporary American poetry cannot be overstated.

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