The Auctioneer Bangs His Gavel by Benjamin S. Grossberg Wick Poetry Chapbook Series Three, #11 2006, 32 pp ISBN 0-87338-869-0 Paper, $6.00 courtesy of our partner, Atlas Books Call (419) 281-1802 to order by phone.

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“Reading The Auctioneer Bangs His Gavel, I had the sense of finding a poet I’d been looking for unawares: one who intertwines a survey of human sexuality (and gay sexuality at that) with theological questions; one who tackles ambitious poetic projects without sounding pretentious; one who writes fables using the ordinary materials of daily reality; one who balances the Jewish sources of the Western tradition with its Hellenic counterpart; one who knows how to be serious with the assistance of laughter; one who can tell a story and excerpt his own autobiography as a way of gaining larger perspectives on experience. ‘No things but in ideas,’ seems to be his aesthetic motto, and that has served him well in his goal—to declare that we are free to follow our natures in the pursuit of happiness.”—Alfred Corn

Benjamin S. Grossberg is associate professor of literature and creative writing at Antioch College. His poetry has appeared in journals such as Paris Review, Pleiades, and North American Review and has been anthologized in the Pushcart Prize anthology for 2005.

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