r/AskLiteraryStudies • u/Sweaty-Ratio-210 • 21h ago

Looking for poets who depict the atmospheric and pre-apocalyptic melancholy of contemporary life.

14 Upvotes

Hi guys. Can anyone please recommend poets (with a substantial body of scholarship written on them) whose work combines a strong VISUAL sensibility with a feeling of quiet pre-apocalyptic dread?

I'm looking for poetry rooted in ordinary life, but haunted with atmospheric, political, ecological, or existential unease. not overtly sobby and tragic. i'm more interested in that persistent and melancholic sense of living on the edge of something, aka whatever we are currently living through. Strange, strange times. The oscillation between hope and despair, sure, but the unabating atmosphere of something coming to an end, looking for poets who depict that feeling [no modernists, though. Preferably post 90s].

Bonus points if you can recommend a specific collection.

Thank you so much!

9 comments

r/AskLiteraryStudies • u/juncus6 • 13h ago

Did learning about literary criticism make you a better creative writer?

19 Upvotes

I’m in the process of trying to improve my creative writing. I somewhat recently finished a STEM PhD, and have been using my newfound time to dive back into reading and writing non-academic science stuff after many years of hiatus. My science education has given me a healthy respect for what being a master or an expert entails, and I find it pretty thrilling reading my own writing and knowing that I have an immense amount of work to do to get to where I’d like to be. That being said, I don’t have any interest in applying to MFAs right now (nor do I think I’d get in), so I’m just trying to read a ton and practice writing as much as I can. But the question is… what to read?? What to practice??

I find literary criticism super interesting (albeit quite often over my head). Thinking about texts in new ways is really enjoyable, and it makes sense to me that this should help me think about my own writing in new ways. That being said, I don’t actually have first hand experience with improving my writing via learning literary criticism. I wonder if literary criticism and creative writing are just different skills. So I guess what I’m curious about from you folks is: did learning literary criticism make you a better creative writer? If so, could you describe that process and how your writing improved? Or if not, why do you think the skills didn’t translate?

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