Short Talks by Anne Carson

On the occasion of the press’s 40th anniversary, Brick Books is proud to present the first of six new editions of classic books from our back catalogue. This new edition of Short Talks features a foreword by the poet Margaret Christakos, a “Short Talk on Afterwords” by Carson herself, and a new cover and design by the renowned typographer Robert Bringhurst.

First issued in 1992, this is Carson’s first and only collection of poems published with an independent Canadian press. It announced the arrival of a profound, elegiac, and biting new voice. Short Talks can comfortably stand alongside Carson’s other bestselling and award-winning works.

The youth at night would have himself driven around the scream. It lay in the middle of the city gazing back at him with its heat and rosepools of flesh. Terrific lava shone on his soul. He would ride and stare. — “Short Talk on the Youth at Night”

Praise for Short Talks:

“Short Talks is, I propose, a unique form of slag-like poetic address that arises from the full formative force of Carson’s young embodiment of a northern Ontario mining-town winter of mind.” — Margaret Christakos, from the Introduction.

*Erratum

The text of “Short Talk on Trout,” page 37 of the new Brick Books Classics edition of Anne Carson’s Short Talks should read as follows:

SHORT TALK ON TROUT

In haiku, according to Kawabata, there are various sorts of expressions about trout. ‘Autumn trout’ and ‘rusty trout’ and ‘descending trout’ are some that he names. ‘Autumn trout’ and ‘rusty trout’ are trout that have laid their eggs. Worn out, completely exhausted, they are going down to the sea. Of course, he adds, there were occasionally trout that spent the winter in deep pools. These were called ‘remaining trout.’”

Press Coverage:

Indies Recommend: Small Press Books You Should Read This December — Literary Hub

Short Talks by Anne Carson — The Rumpus

Reading Anne Carson’s Reissued Short Talks — Poetry Foundation