Into the Deep Street: Seven Modern French Poets 1938-2008

Contemporary French poetry has long been tagged as being overly cerebral and hermetic. But there exists a very different, thriving tradition which is too often muffled by noisier movements like Surrealism or Minimalism. Into the Deep Street gives voice to this tradition. What links the poets is an acute awareness of the existential instant in both its inward workings and also, crucially, in its outwardness - in the street, on the move. From the key figure of Jean Follain, who can freeze an entire period of history in a vignette of a few lines, via the best-known of the close-knit if regionally scattered group, Philippe Jaccottet, to the newer voices of Guy Goffette and Gilles Ortlieb, all these poets are masters of wry brevity and the resonant image. Jennie Feldman's first collection of poems, The Lost Notebook, was published by Anvil in 2005, as was her selection and translation from Jacques R da's poems, Treading Lightly. She lives in Jerusalem. Stephen Romer has been Ma tre de conf rences at the University of Tours since 1991. His anthology 20th Century French Poems was published by Faber in 2002. The latest of his four collections of poetry, Yellow Studio, was published by Carcanet in 2008.

Jennie Feldman studied French at Oxford. Her selection of poems by the French poet Jacques Reda, Treading Lightly, was published by Anvil in 2005 as was her highly praised first collection, The Lost Notebook. A former award-winning producer and presenter of radio documentaries, she also translates Hebrew poetry and teaches creative writing. She lives in Jerusalem. Stephen Romer was born in 1957 and educated at Cambridge. He has been senior lecturer (＂Maitre de conferences＂) at the University of Tours since 1991. He has translated widely from modern and contemporary French poetry, and his anthology 20th Century French Poems (Faber) was published in 2003. The author of four collections of poetry, his latest, Yellow Studio, appeared in 2008.