CSSLibraryGuides: Faculty Reading Lists: Ryan Vine

Ryan Vine (January 2012)

Ryan Vine is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English. His book of poetry, Distant Engines, won a Weldon Kees Award from The Backwaters Press. His poems have been published in The American Poetry Review and Ploughshares. His criticism occasionally appears in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Favorite or most infleuntial books:

1. Anything by Cormac McCarthy.
Call Number: PS3563.C337 A79
ISBN: 1447202783
Start with All the Pretty Horses. Then, The Road. Then, Blood Meridian.
2. The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Call Number: PS3554.I259 B75 2008x
ISBN: 1594483299
Publication Date: 2008
It's an unforgettable book.
3. The Dream Songs by John Berryman
Call Number: PS3503.E744 D7 2007
ISBN: 0374530661
Publication Date: 2007
These poems are haunting. They'll follow you, whether or not you want them to.
4. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Call Number: PS3525.A1772 H4 1967
ISBN: 0618526412
Publication Date: 1940
Again, it's an unforgettable book.
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scot Fitzgerald
Call Number: PS3511.I9 G7 1991
ISBN: 0521402301
Publication Date: 1991
Sure, it's of the "great American novel" ilk, but don't be afraid of it. It's a beautiful book and a blast to read.
What are you reading now?
I'm reading Dean Young's The Art of Recklessness, a collection of essays on the importance of recklessness in poetry. "Poetry is not a discipline," Young writes. "It is a hunger, a revolt, a drive, a mash note, a fright, a tantrum, a grief, a hoax, a debacle, an application, an effect."