I Speak Of The City

Published by Columbia University Press, 2007

Featured Poem: “The Old Neighborhood”

About the anthology:
“I Speak of the City is the most extensive collection of poems ever assembled about New York. Beginning with an early piece by Jacob Steendam (from when the city was called New Amsterdam) and continuing through poems written in the aftermath of 9/11, this anthology features voices from more than a dozen countries. It includes two Nobel Prize recipients, fifteen Pulitzer Prize winners, and many other recognizable names, but it also preserves the work of long-neglected poets who celebrate the wild possibilities and colossal achievements of this epic city.”

“‘The final measure of the greatness of all people,’ wrote James Weldon Johnson, ‘is the amount and standard of the literature and art they have produced.’ Although it provides only a sampling of the vast amount of literature about New York, I Speak of the City is a testament to the city’s spirit, preserved and newly created in the most ennobling expression of the human heart.”
—Stephen Wolf, Editor

Praise
“Other US cities have nourished their share of wonderful poets, but New York City is unique as a breeding ground and literary capital, a magnet for genius and talent. You’ll find old favorites and splendid surprises alike in Stephen Wolf’s lovingly assembled anthology. I Speak of the City is an unadulterated treat.” —David Lehman, editor of The Oxford Anthology of American Poetry

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