City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry
“‘When a nation goes down or a society perishes, one condition can always be found—they forgot where they came from,’ cautioned Chicago icon Carl Sandburg, whose acute historical consciousness pervades this timely anthology. From the stockyard to the speakeasy, the steakhouse to the flophouse, the top of the Hancock tower to the thirteenth floor of an east-side tenement, what this eclectic gathering of poets shares is a commitment to honoring Chicago’s roots. Infused with a passion beyond the reach of prose, here is an ‘intimate ethnography’—part torch song, part folk song, part ballad, part dirge—of a city both ‘on the make’ and ‘on the take.’”—Suzanne Buffam, author,The Irrationalist