Jay Parini presents the best of his prose - essays, meditations, and memoirs, many published here for the first time.

Here too are personal stories of living in small towns, writing amid the bustle of cafes and restaurants, and seasons on Italy's Amalfi coast. With characteristically sharp wit, Parini confronts the question of productivity that plagues writers (including himself): Are writers who churn out books "genuine" writers? If not, how does one explain the legendary tales of sweat and blood, the Balzacs and Dickenses who populate literary history?

In some of his essays on individual poets, Parini celebrates the visionary sensibility of William Blake and its influence on Theodore Roethke; illuminates the powerfully evocative theme of Ireland in the poetry of Seamus Heaney; and offers close readings of a variety of modern and contemporary poets, from Robert Frost to Charles Wright.