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The art of losing

Elizabeth Bishop's cult of exactitude
by
May 2025, no. 475

On Elizabeth Bishop by Colm Tóibín

Princeton University Press, $34.99 pb, 210 pp

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The art of losing

Elizabeth Bishop's cult of exactitude
by
May 2025, no. 475

What is truth in poetry? This unanswerable question is central to Colm Tóibín’s meticulous and attentive reading of American poet Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry. First published in 2015, its thirteen chapters examine her poetry and its relationship to her life through an overarching lens of telling the truth in poetry, the power of the unsaid, and the impact of this on Tóibín’s own writing.

On Elizabeth Bishop

On Elizabeth Bishop

by Colm Tóibín

Princeton University Press, $34.99 pb, 210 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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