The University of Iowa press released two new volumes of literary scholarship this spring -- "12 x 12: Conversations in 21st-Century Poetry and Poetics" and "History Matters: Contemporary Poetry on the Margins of American Culture."

"12 x 12," edited by Christina Mengert and Joshua Marie Wilkinson, assembles the views of 24 poets through their one-on-one pairings. UI Writers' Workshop faculty member Cole Swensen wrote, "'12 x 12' is truly representative of the best in early 21st-century poetry. Because the poets, both younger and older, are particularly socially and intellectually dynamic, Mengert and Wilkinson's volume presents poetry as socially and politically relevant and underscores the potential for poets to be important thinkers in society."

Ira Sadoff's "History Matters" argues that poets live and write within history, and that artistic values reflect attitudes about both literary history and culture at large. By tracking key contemporary poets, including John Ashbery, Louise Glück, Czeslaw Milosz, and Frank O'Hara, Sadoff investigates the lively poetic art of those who have grappled with late 20th-century attitudes about history, subjectivity, contingency, flux and modernity.

The books will be available at bookstores or directly from the UI Press by phone at 800-621-2736 or online at http://www.uiowapress.org. Customers in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East or Africa may order from the Eurospan Group online at http://www.eurospangroup.com/bookstore.