By the Numbers

Book of the Year honors from Publishers Weekly

As if hurled from a pitching mound, James Richardson's aphorisms and images approach the reader like fastballs, only to curve at the last second, painting the corners of the reader's mind with wisdom and delight. In By the Numbers Richardson dips into an expansive repertoire of approaches and shows excellent command, as he illuminates the commute between the ordinary and the mystical. --National Book Award finalist, Judges' Citation

"[O]ne of America's most distinctive contemporary poets...a powerful and moving body of work that in its intimacy and philosophical naturalism is unique in contemporary American poetry." --Boston Review

"James Richardson's Interglacial, a poetry finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, is like a beautiful river, under the thin surface of which rushes an intensely felt life and a never quite lost yearning to belong." --NewPages

"James Richardson's poetry is...unusual, quirky, personal, and profound." --The Threepenny Review

"James Richardson is...a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision." --The Christian Science Monitor

James Richardson is the author of six books of poetry and two critical studies. His poems appear frequently in The New Yorker, Slate, and Paris Review. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University.