A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on the Poet’s Novel provides a unique entrance to the rare prose of many remarkable modern and contemporary poets including Etel Adnan, Renee Gladman, Langston Hughes, Kevin Killian, Alice Notley, Fernando Pessoa, Rainer Maria Rilke, Leslie Scalapino, Jack Spicer, and Jean Toomer, whose approaches to the novel defy conventions of plot, character, setting, and action. 

Contributors: Brian Blanchfield, Anne Boyer, John Keene, Mónica de la Torre, Cedar Sigo, and C. D. Wright bring a variety of insights, approaches, and writing styles to the subject with creative and often surprisingresults.Kazim Ali on Fanny HoweDan Beachy-Quick on W.G. SebaldEdmund Berrigan on Ted BerriganBrian Blanchfield on Aaron KuninRachel Blau DuPlessis on Gertrude SteinJulia Bloch on Gwendolyn BrooksAnne Boyer on Elizabeth Barrett BrowningTraci Brimhall on Hilda HilstVincent Broqua on Stacy DorisBrandon Brown on Kevin KillianLee Ann Brown on Carla HarrymanAngela Carr on Nicole BrossardJulie Carr on Lyn HejinianNorma Cole on Emmanuel HocquardBrent Cunningham on Laura MoriartyMónica de la Torre on Martín AdánMarcella Durand on Robert CreeleyPatrick Durgin on Tan Lin & Pamela LuNorman Fischer on Phillip WhalenC.S. Giscombe on Audre LordeJudith Goldman on Leslie ScalapinoCarla Harryman on Gail ScottJeanne Heuving on Theresa Hak Kyung ChaLaura Hinton on Alice NotleyDaniel Katz on Jack SpicerJohn Keene on Fernando PessoaKarla Kelsey on Barbara GuestAaron Kunin on Lewis CarrollSonnet L’Abbé on M. NourbeSe PhilipAbigail Lang on Jacques RoubaudKimberly Lyons on Mina Loy W. Jason Miller on Langston HughesMette Moestrup on Ingeborg Bachmann Laura Moriarty on Keith WaldropLaura Mullen on Bhanu Kapil Denise Newman on Inger Christensen Aldon Lynn Nielsen on Amiri BarakaGeoffrey G. O’Brien on John Ashbery & James SchuylerJena Osman on Thalia FieldJulie Patton on Jean Toomer Elizabeth Robinson on Rosmarie Waldrop Jennifer Scappettone on H.D. Susan Scarlata on Forrest Gander Brandon Shimoda on Etel Adnan Cedar Sigo on Eileen Myles Sasha Steensen on Anne Carson Donna Stonecipher on Peter Waterhouse Brian Teare on Rainer Maria Rilke Tyrone Williams on Nathaniel MackeyC.D. Wright on Michael OndaatjeLynn Xu on Ben LernerRachel Zolf on Juliana Spahr