Paula Bonnell

Poetry. AIRS & VOICES is the winner of the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry, selected by Mark Jarman, who calls Bonnell's voice fresh and original. Maxine Kumin writes of the book, Bonnell's voice is low-key but full of quirky insights that keep these poems fresh and interesting. This is an enchanting book, writes Richard Wilbur. These poems invent their own forms, with two series of voices (of people, animals, things) portraying a world of peace with varied multicultural and international connections. The shock of 9/11 opens the final section, which relates private experience to wider social healing and the ideal of one world. 'The Voices' may be one of the wisest comments on the catastrophe of 9/11 that an American poet has made, writes X. J. Kennedy.