Frank O'hara Now: New Essays on the New York Poet

The work of Frank O’Hara (1926–66) is central to any consideration of twentieth-century American poetry. Frank O’Hara Now, the first collection of essays to be dedicated to O’Hara in nearly two decades, asks why O’Hara remains so important to twenty-first-century readers and writers of poetry. For many, O’Hara’s distinctive appeal depends on his witty depictions of urban experience, his relationship to the painters of abstract expressionism, and the exhilarating immediacy of his poetic voice. Yet these approachable qualities coexist with a demanding engagement with currents in European and American modernism. 

The book includes coverage of O’Hara moods that have rarely been discussed in the criticism to date, including boredom, hatred, and nihilism. Throughout, there is a powerful sense that fresh readings of O’Hara are crucial to understanding his continuing influence, making it essential reading for scholars and students of American poetry.