The Art of the Lathe by B H Fairchild

The Art of the Lathe by B H Fairchild

B.H. Fairchild's The Art of the Lathe is a collection of poems centering on the working-class world of the Midwest, the isolations of small-town life, and the possibilities and occasions of beauty and grace among the machine shops and oil fields of rural Kansas.

. . . James Joyce's Stephen Dedalus spoke of forging the conscience of his race in the smithy of his soul; in the dusty light of a Kansas machine shop, B.H. Fairchild has performed similar magic. -- R.S. Gwynn

B.H. Fairchild brings sympathetic insight to the people the machinists, welders, and farmers he writes of. And like a fine novelist, he has a gift for focusing on those moments when lives constrained by psychological or economic circumstances are touched by beauty and significance. -- Timothy Steele

With elegance and restrained subtlety, Mr. Fairchild interweaves topics that become something like musical themes, including the central theme of machine work . . .Anyone who can lay claim to the authorship of this much excellent poetry wins my unqualified and grateful admiration. -- from the introduction by Anthony Hecht

B.H.Fairchild, a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the William Carlos Williams Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Bobbitt National Prize, is the author of several outstanding poetry collections and a recipient of Guggenheim and NEA grants. He is a professor at the University of North Texas's PhD program in creative writing.