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Composition Studies, by Annie Hinkle, is a metaphorical exploration of the relationships between reader, writer, and text. This lyrical and episodic collection includes poems published in Ascent and Southern Poetry Review.

Praise for Composition Studies

Echoing William Carlos Williams, Annie Hinkle tells us, “All meaning in things,” and the things of this world, their colors and textures, flare up from her taut spare lines like brush fires.  These poems celebrate not only language but music and art and the spaces they share.  They have a lifetime of experience behind them and are wise enough to say more than they say. We should be grateful for writing as clean, unadorned, and honest as this.

—Steven Bauer, Daylight Savings, Peregrine Smith Books

It’s not hard to picture the young Annie Hinkle with her nose in a beloved book selected from her “volumes of stars/flowers/shells” or, for that matter, the present-day poet, her “silvered hair/on fire with moonlight” dreaming “of words/falling into the right places.” And thank goodness for Annie’s love of books and words as it has brought us Composition Studies, a loving and lovely ars poetica, alive with the music and images of the poet’s world both on and off the page. “Dear writer,” says Annie Hinkle, “I read your book/twice”. Composition Studies is a book to read time and again, finding with each reading new “buried treasure” to admire and to savor.

—Pauletta Hansel, Cincinnati’s Poet Laureate and author of Tangle, Dos Madres Press

Annie Hinkle’s Composition Studies is a meditation and a celebration of beauty and the imagination, how they intersect and compel us to crate and live with “our eyes open.” [Her] images vibrate with breathtaking imagery (“fireflies become stars/Braille for my heart”), intimacy, longing, wonder, and gratitude. You’ll want to savor these poems with their deep reverence and unforgettable exhilaration for life and creating art.

—Karen George, Swim Your Way Back, Dos Madres Press

Read sample poems from the book:

“Dear writer” a slightly different version of “Ohio Summer” in Ascent, Vol. 23/3, Spring 1999

“artists’ agreement” in Best of Ohio 2014

“writing lesson in silver” entitled “Writing Lesson” in Southern Poetry Review, Vol. 52/2, 2014

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Published by Finishing Line Press

Cover art by Richard Cisneros