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Monday, November 28, 2005
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The Proust of Fort Lee UD’s delighted to see that the excellent poet and essayist August Kleinzahler has been named Poet Laureate of Fort Lee, New Jersey, where he’s from. They like Kleinzahler in Jersey because, one townsman says, “"He does a good job of capturing something of his youth in Fort Lee. Like Proust, he writes about Fort Lee out of memory." It tells you all you need to know about the American poetry establishment that while the laureate for the whole country is the dread Ted Kooser, Kleinzahler’s only got Fort Lee. On the other hand, “Kleinzahler says he would turn down the [national] honor. He disapproves of the type of people who are generally named poet laureate." Too right. |