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About An Open Book

The first collection of poems by one of the world’s best-loved writers. Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game, Enchantment, and the Alvin Maker series, did not originally plan to write fiction. He spent his journeyman years as a playwright. Before that, however, it was poetry that engaged his pen. Never content to write just one thing, Card has continued writing poetry along with his more well-known work in other forms. He has submitted little of it for publication, because there are no journals that seem to welcome the kind of poetry he values. An Open Book, Card’s first published collection, is selected from thirty-five years of poems. The title reflects his attitude that this book and all the poems in it remain works in progress. It also reflects Card’s commitment to clarity, especially in poetry. As he says in his afterword: “To be clear and yet also say something worth saying is what I believe poets should strive for. “The first reading should reward the reader. If later readings reveal new insights, so much the better; but if the first reading did not achieve Dryden’s recipe of sweetness and light, why should a reader return for a second pass?” Being an open book, this audiobook edition also features poems not included in the original print edition.