“Much of the pleasure of this collection lies in how it reintroduces the reader to the outside. Casteen unlocks the natural world with perfect, precise phrases...The wisdom in Casteen’s work isn’t limited to mountaintop reflections. Elsewhere, he is restrained, but with an underlying combustibility…The calm language is rife with violence between the lines, anger on a hot night.”
— Emma Rathbone, C-Ville Weekly
“John Casteen is a craftsman in his life and in his poems. Just as any good carpenter understands the wood upon his lathe, down to its xylem and its phloem, its roots, its weathered bark and leaves, Casteen knows language at its most cellular level; and he makes poems that are durable and elegant, solid not just for their construction but for the sense of stewardship that he brings to the task of writing. In the deepest sense, these poems are true: he does not shy away from the ethical problems of his age, nor does he reduce their complexities. What does it mean to sharpen tools, to hew and saw, to hunt, to take from the bountiful world? ‘I owe a debt I don’t know how to repay.’ But these poems are a most generous repayment, a fine new forest upon the land, one that will endure.”
— D. A. Powell, author of Cocktails
“Walking the line between modern confessional and a reinvention of the pastoral, Casteen’s poems speak to the need of fully living the one life he’s been given. . . Casteen conflates tightly woven lyrics with lyric narratives, and his woodshop’s sounds with honest experience to build his readers a house in Free Union, where ‘our life here is poor and full’ ”
— The Rumpus
“John Casteen may have a minor audience problem, in that people who like poetry may not think they like poems about hunting, woodworking, and fairly stoic and silent father-son relationships, while stoic hunters and silent woodworkers may not think they like poetry. But both kinds of readers will find pleasure here.”
— Mobile Press-Register

Selected poems available online:
“Murmur” >>
“Gravid” >>
reading of “Night Hunting” >>
“Enormity” >>

 

The Mind of Monticello: 50 Contemporary Poets on Jefferson
University of Virginia Press, 2016 (forthcoming)

The Best American Poetry series is a beloved mainstay of American poetry. This year’s edition was edited by one of the most admired and acclaimed poets of his generation, Charles Wright. Known for his meditative and beautiful observations of landscape, change, and time,Wright brings his particular sensibility to this year’s anthology, which contains an ecumenical slant that is unprecedented for the series. He has gathered an astonishing selection of work that includes new poems by Carolyn Forché, Jorie Graham, Louise Glück, Frank Bidart, Frederick Seidel, Patti Smith, and Kevin Young and showcases a dazzling array of rising stars like Joshua Beckman, Erica Dawson, and Alex Lemon. 

With captivating and revelatory notes from the poets on their works and sage and erudite introductory essays by Wright and series editor David Lehman, The Best American Poetry 2008 will be read, discussed, debated, and prized for years to come.

Literature is a conversation — between writers and other writers, and between writers and readers. In Literature and Its Writers, Ann and Samuel Charters complement a rich and varied selection of stories, poems, and plays with an unparalleled array of commentaries about that literature by the writers themselves. Such “writer talk” inspires students to respond as it models ways for them to enter the conversation. In the sixth edition, the Charters continue to entice students to join the conversation, with adventurous and intriguing new literary works, more detailed coverage of literary elements, and more help with reading and writing.