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Fear Less
Poetry in Perilous Times
Series: A Norton Short
Brief Description
Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterised as "inaccessible," "irrelevant," or "intimidating." She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream,...
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Fear Less
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The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet reveals how poetry is a powerful tool of connection and understanding in a fractured world
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Description
Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterised as "inaccessible," "irrelevant," or "intimidating." She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream, question, and cultivate community.
Lifting the veil on her own creative process, Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us to better confront life's many uncertainties and losses, build camaraderie with strangers, and understand ourselves more fully.
In six insightful chapters, she grounds readers in the technical elements of the craft and provides close readings of the works of contemporary poets such as Joy Harjo, Danez Smith, and Francisco Márquez, alongside classic poems by Dickinson, Keats, Millay, and others.
By reimagining and reexamining the age-old art form, Fear Less is a warm invitation to find meaning, consolation, and hope through poetry for poetry fans and newcomers to the art form.
Series: A Norton Short
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Unfurling a tapestry of surprising and historically overlooked figures spanning forty centuries and six continents, historian Matthew Lockwood narrates lives filled with imagination and wonder, curiosity, connection, and exchange. Familiar icons of exploration like Pocahontas, Columbus, Sacagawea, and Captain Cook find new company in the untold stories of people usually denied the title "explorers," including immigrants, indigenous interpreters, local guides,...Paperback$2299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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Fear Less
Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterised as "inaccessible," "irrelevant," or "intimidating." She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream, question, and cultivate community. Lifting the veil on her own creative process, Smith shows...Hardback$4599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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How do the rich keep getting richer while dodging the long arm of the law? From playboy billionaires avoiding taxes on private islands to Russian oligarchs sailing away from sanctions on their superyachts, the ultra-rich seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. That world is called offshore. Hidden from view, the world's ultra-rich can use...Paperback$2299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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Wherever there's a rule, there is someone with the power to apply or ignore it-or add to it, in the interest of justice. From enforcing chores to issuing life sentences, decision-makers deliver flawed and sometimes arbitrary outcomes. But is their use of discretion good or bad overall? As a society, should we seek to minimize or maximize discretion, with all...Paperback$2299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781324050988
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 06 January 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 192
About the Author
Tracy K. Smith is the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States and is the author of five poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Life on Mars.
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