Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee
by James Tate
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The 44 stories of "Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee"--Long-awaited by fans of Tate's poetry-will come as a welcome surprise to readers unfamiliar with his previous work. Tate seems both awed and bemused by small town life, with its legends, flights of fancy, heightened emotions, tragedies and small ruptures in the fabric of ordinary existence.Tags
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I fell in love with the poetry of James Tate a few years ago, and when I heard of this volume of his short stories, I quickly ordered it. Tate’s poetry is mostly written in a prose style, one that is most always unpredictable, wryly funny, often with a sudden aha twist at the end. I find his humor supremely amusing, endearing, and wise, but I’m know for my bad puns—so consider the source.
His short stories were a lot like his poetry—strange and surprising. He had a spry mind that I will always treasure. I’ve read many reviews of his work, and it is not unusual to come across my favorite word, bizarre. Tate brought so much of life into his work, with politics sharing space with romance, absurdity cuddled up with the blackest of show more humor, with cold alienation suddenly entering the world of marriage, infidelity, and the many flavors of love. I love reading his work, never knowing where his words will take me, not seeing around the next corner, and not even seeing the next corner coming.
In the end, I’m sure to reread some of these stories, but thinking of James Tate will always lead my mind first to his poetry. show less
His short stories were a lot like his poetry—strange and surprising. He had a spry mind that I will always treasure. I’ve read many reviews of his work, and it is not unusual to come across my favorite word, bizarre. Tate brought so much of life into his work, with politics sharing space with romance, absurdity cuddled up with the blackest of show more humor, with cold alienation suddenly entering the world of marriage, infidelity, and the many flavors of love. I love reading his work, never knowing where his words will take me, not seeing around the next corner, and not even seeing the next corner coming.
In the end, I’m sure to reread some of these stories, but thinking of James Tate will always lead my mind first to his poetry. show less
Most of these very short stories ended so abruptly it grated on my nerves.
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37+ Works 1,594 Members
James Vincent Tate was born in Kansas City on December 8, 1943 and erupted upon the poetry scene when, in 1967, at the age of 23, he received the Yale Series of Young Poets award for The Lost Pilot. Within two years of his stunning debut, Tate had another dozen collections in print or accepted for publication. Tate's work earned him the Pulitzer show more Prize and the National Book Award. He was a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dudley Fitts selected Tate's first book of poems, The Lost Pilot (1967), for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while Tate was still a student at the Writers' Workshop; Fitts praised Tate's writing for its "natural grace." Tate's first volume of poetry, Cages, was published by Shepherd's Press, Iowa City, 1966. Tate won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize and the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award in 1991 for his Selected Poems. In 1994, he won the National Book Award for his poetry collection Worshipful Company of Fletchers. In addition to many books of poetry, he published two books of prose, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee (2001) and The Route as Briefed (1999). Tate received his B.A. in 1965, going on to earn his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's famed Writer's Workshop. He died on July 8, 2015 at the age of 71. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Reviews
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- Rating
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
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