Erin Belieu's debut, Infanta , was selected for the National Poetry Series and quickly sold through its large first printing. Both The Washington Post and the National Book Critics Circle named it as one of the best poetry books for 1993. Now, in her second book, Belieu is proving herself a poet worthy of all the recognition. Coaxing a voice of urban chic from the dirt-filled roots of rural tension, these poems, many of which have appeared in publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic Monthly , are as captivating as any in American poetry. "Here are freshness and art...a distinctive new voice, outpacing conventional expectations."-Robert Pinsky BR> Erin Belieu was born in 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska, and educated at the University of Nebraska, Ohio State University, and Boston University. In addition to winning the National Poetry Series, she has received the Academy of American Poets Prize. She teaches at Kenyon College in Cambier, Ohio. Belieu's second book (after Infanta, a "National Poetry" series selection) takes its title from the poem "Brown Recluse," a tightly rhymed metaphysical piece that posits the life-and-death equation--"spirit of the ratio/ one above and one below"--as central to the poet's art. The prosody is refreshing here, but it is not what Belieu does best. Rather, she excels at a witty, drawn-out vernacular that requires a bit more space. Of her native Nebraska, she writes: "If you ever have a child,/ remember to assure her that/ one cannot really die of boredom, just an expression/ folks use to pass the time, as one milo field drifts/ into another and the same decrepit shed, year after/ year, threatens to collapse." Or farther along in the same poem: "You've never seen the sand hill cranes,/ but know the rites of their ethereal lovemaking." Like the brown recluse spider who "pins her sleeve to the dead" in order to exist, this poet is wedded to a dark muse, one who is "busy rubbing lotion in her fresh tattoo." But she has a youthful, upbeat spirit, and, with the exception of one poem about the death of a brother, the dark side does not always convince. Belieu is a young poet worth watching. -Ellen Kaufman Dewey Ballantine LLP Law Lib. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Against Writing About Children At St. Sulpice Brown Recluse Cephalophore Chest For Arrows -- On The Execution Of Ann Boleyn Choose Your Garden Dinner, After The Aquarium Francesca's Complaint High Lonesome I Can't Write A Poem About Class Rage I Wake A Little Earlier Each Morning K. Lovely Mise-en-scene My Field Guide News Of The War Nocturne:my Sister Life 1 Nocturne:my Sister Life 2 Nocturne:my Sister Life 3 Nocturne:my Sister Life 4 Nocturne:my Sister Life 5 Nocturne:my Sister Life 6 On Being Fired Again Plainsong The Possible Husband Radio Nebraska The Real Lives Of Lovers There You Are Timing Is Everything Wayward Girl Your Character Is Your Destiny -- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® Used Book in Good Condition