Literature for Life - Softcover

Kennedy, X.; Gioia, Dana; Revoyr, Nina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205745148 ISBN 13: 9780205745142

Publisher: Pearson, 2012

Synopsis

Literature for Life: A Thematic Introduction to Reading and Writing  as both its title and content suggests, forges a close relationship between students’ reading and life experiences—the texts used are accessible, grounded, relatable, and meaningful.  There’s enough range to suit instructors of many backgrounds, experiences, and strengths and to encourage instructors to better teaching and students to better learning.  Literature for Life is organized around seven enduring themes: Families, Love, Life’s Journeys, Individual and Society, Personal Identity, Nature and the Environment, and War and Peace. Each theme is divided into clusters  that provide instructors with useful teaching units.

About this title

From the Back Cover

“...this is a text that uses thematics thoughtfully and deeply rather than sparsely and

sporadically. Literature for Life, as both its title and content suggests, attempts to forge a

close relationship between students’ reading and life experiences.”

—Erin Radcliffe, Central New Mexico College

 

“These chapters (reading chapters) are flat-out superb, at least for me: They include and

“codify” every element I have used to break down our literature structurally, which the

students respond to well. Your poetry unit is exceptionally good, what with its clearly

defined and well-illustrated bits on poetics: meter, imagery, etc. This whole chapter is an

orderly, clear, comprehensive, and very teachable masterpiece.”

—Vicki J. Sapp, Tarrant County College

 

“Overall, the textbook is thoughtful and useful. I believe that the authors really put

thought into selecting texts that will work for many, many types of students, and this is

important. I can definitely see myself selecting this text for use. I would have to do very

little to supplement this text in my classes. I will propose its acceptance to our textbook

committee once it is in print.”

—Anne C. Spurlock, Mississippi State University

 

“I do think this will resonate with students based on the approach of the text. Students

often don’t see the relevance of literature, but the themes are such that students see the

connection between the writings and their own lives.”

—Africa Fine, Palm Beach State College

 

“Literature for Life is a student-friendly, college-composition, literary text written in a

direct, fluid manner that cannot help but engage student and instructor alike in the

processes of critical reading, writing, and thinking. Don’t take my word for it; just order

a copy today and see what I mean.”

—Rebecca McLauchlin Whitten, Mississippi State University

About the Author

X. J. Kennedy , after graduation from Seton Hall and Columbia, became a journalist second class in the Navy (“Actually, I was pretty eighth class”). His poems, some published in the New Yorker, were first collected in Nude Descending a Staircase (1961). Since then he has written six more collections, several widely adopted literature and writing textbooks, and seventeen books for children, including two novels. He has taught at Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), California (Irvine), Wellesley, Tufts, and Leeds. Cited in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations and reprinted in some 200 anthologies, his verse has brought him a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lamont Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an Aiken-Taylor prize, the Robert Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America, and the Award for Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Dorothy have collaborated on four books and five children.

 

Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and critic. He is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and three collections of criticism, most notably Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. A best-selling literary anthologist, Gioia has edited or co-edited over two dozen collections of poetry, fiction, and drama. He has also written two opera libretti and has collaborated with composers in genres ranging from classical to jazz and rock. For six years (2003-2009) he served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts where he gained strong bipartisan support for the previously imperiled agency and helped launch the largest literary programs in federal history, including The Big Read, Poetry Out Loud, and Shakespeare in American Communities. He was twice unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. For two years he directed the arts and culture programs for the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. and Colorado.  He is currently the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California.  He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California.

 

Nina Revoyr is the author of four novels, The Necessary Hunger, Southland, and The Age of Dreaming. Southland was a Book Sense 76 pick, won the Lambda Literary Award, and was a Los Angeles Times "Best Book" of 2003. The Age of Dreaming was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.  Revoyr lives and works in Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0205745148
• ISBN 13: 9780205745142
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1504