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."