POETRY · CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION
Robert Pack
Also known as: Pack, Robert, 1942-...., Robert Pack americký novinář
Brat Pack is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. The term Brat Pack, a play on Rat Pack from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularized in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of highly successful film stars in their early twenties. David Blum wrote the article after witnessing several young actors being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe. The group has been characterized by the partying of members such as Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and Judd Nelson.
You, your classmates, and your teacher are about to begin a class which differs in some ways from your regular classes.
— from Touchstones
Most acclaimed
Composing voices
2005
"Robert Pack's new volume of poetry, Composing Voices: A Cycle of Dramatic Monologues, is a fabulously expanded version of his 1984 book, Faces in a Single Tree. In each of the poems a single person is talking to one other person to whom he is intimately related, creating deep dramatic tension: a father talking to a bereaved daughter or puzzled son; a sister confronting a sister gone astray or a brother to whom she is confessing her compromised pregnancy; husbands and wives, old and young, reviewing some crisis of their lives together. Combined with these human dramas are the dramas of nature. Pack inherits Robert Frost's sensitivity to the minutiae of spectacle and evolution, the mysteries of God and Darwin's theories. He regards these with humor and compassion. And, perhaps miraculously, but surely most wisely, he does it all within the regulations and beauties of blank verse. Pack has added to his first cycle of monologues some characters who are not necessarily related by blood. Here we find relations of professional intimacy--lawyer and client, doctor and patient. All possible human concerns are excavated in these poems: humans and God, humans and the environment, humans and their most significant others, including pet monkeys and ghosts. All these characters are, of course, the creations of a single mind, that of the author's. In this new book, Pack has included a prologue and epilogue that explain his rationale for such a work of human exploration through fictional invention."--Publisher's website.
Writers on writing
From deeply personal perspectives, two dozen established writers ponder the mystery of their art and such fundamentals as: What is a genuine writing impulse? Why does good writing work? How is writing learned? What is the role of craft and technique? Who is meant to be a writer? How is close reading related to good writing? The volume is peppered with critical perspectives and practical advice, yet its special richness and inspiration lie in the wonderment and deep love for the act of writing expressed by each contributor. Each essay is a joy to read, blending storytelling, literary anecdotes gathered from a lifetime of avid reading, and the kind of shoptalk exchanged between colleagues. Writers will find here camaraderie and encouragement, teachers of writing will hear practical testimony to what works, and readers will come away with a renewed awe for the spell cast by good writing.--From back cover.