Hosts and Guests

"This collection is one of two manuscripts recently selected by Susan Stewart for the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, which is dedicated to publishing the best work of today's emerging and established poets. We publish one to two titles per year at the sole discretion of the series editor. The series began in 1975 with the publication of Sadness and Happiness: Poems by Robert Pinsky, and has published landmark collections by such poets as Ann Lauterbach and Jorie Graham. Hosts and Guests is Nate Klug's second full-length book of poems, and the first with Princeton. Taking the double meaning of hospes as both "guest" and "host" as its central theme, this volume focuses on questions of different perspectives. The title poem, for instance, depicts a set of parents visiting a newlywed couple, and explores how the guest/host relation shapes and transforms their perspectives of one another. The volume also explores other guest/host connections, such as recognition and misrecognition, greeting, and farewell. Klug's poems reflect on what it means to view the domestic and familiar through the lens of strangeness and estrangement"--]cProvided by publisher.