Verse novel
Encyclopedia
A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry
in which a novel
-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry
rather than prose
. Either simple or complex stanza
ic verse-forms may be used, but there will usually be a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a novelistic manner.
, the Iliad
, and the Odyssey
, but the verse novel is a distinct modern form. Although the narrative structure is similar to that of a novella
, the organisation of the story is usually in a series of short sections, often with changing perspectives. Verse novels are often told with multiple narrators, potentially providing readers with a cinematic view into the inner workings of the characters' minds. Some verse novels, following Byron's mock-heroic
Don Juan
(1818–24) employ an informal, colloquial register. Eugene Onegin
(1831) by Alexander Pushkin is a classical example, and with Pan Tadeusz
(1834) by Adam Mickiewicz
is often taken as the seminal example of the modern genre.
The major nineteenth-century verse novels that ground the form in Anglophone letters include The Bothie of Toper-na-fuisich (1848) and Amours de Voyage (1858) by Arthur Hugh Clough
, Aurora Leigh
(1857) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
, Lucile
(1860) by 'Owen Meredith' (Robert Bulwer-Lytton
), and The Ring and the Book
(1868-9) by Robert Browning
. The form appears to have declined with Modernism
, but has since the 1960s-70s undergone a remarkable revival. Of particular note, Vikram Seth
's The Golden Gate (1986) was a surprise bestseller, and Derek Walcott
's Omeros
(1990) a more predictable success. The form has been particularly popular in the Caribbean
, with work since 1980 by Walcott, Edward Kamau Brathwaite
, David Dabydeen
, Kwame Dawes
, Ralph Thompson
, George Elliott Clarke
and Fred D'Aguiar
, and in Australia and New Zealand, with work since 1990 by Les Murray
, John Tranter
, Dorothy Porter
, Chris Orsman, David Foster
, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, and Robert Sullivan
.
The parallel history of the verse autobiography, from strong Victorian foundation with Wordsworth's The Prelude (1805, 1850), to decline with Modernism and later twentieth-century revival with John Betjeman
's Summoned by Bells (1960), Walcott's Another Life
(1973), and James Merrill
's The Changing Light at Sandover
(1982), is also striking. The forms are distinct, but many verse novels plainly deploy autobiographical elements, and the recent Commonwealth
examples almost all offer detailed representation of the (problems besetting) post-imperial and post-colonial identity, and so are inevitably strongly personal works.
There is also a distinct recent cluster of verse novels for younger readers, most notably Karen Hesse
's Out of the Dust
, which won a Newbery Medal
in 1998. Hesse followed it with Witness
(2001). Since then, many new titles have cropped up, with authors Sonya Sones
, Ellen Hopkins
, Steven Herrick
, Margaret Wild
, Nikki Grimes
, Virginia Euwer Wolff
, Ann Warren Turner, Lorie Ann Grover, Brenda Seabrooke, Paul B. Janeczko, and Mel Glenn all publishing multiple titles.
forms, prescribing a metre but not specifying any interlineal relations. This tradition is represented in English letters by the use of blank verse
(unrhymed iambic pentameter
), as by both Brownings and many later poets. But since Petrarch
and Dante
complex stanza-forms have also been used for verse narratives, including terza rima
(aba bcb cdc etc.) and ottava rima
(abababcc), and modern poets have experimented widely with adaptations and combinations of stanza-forms.
The stanza most specifically associated with the verse novel is the Onegin stanza
, invented by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin
. It is an adapted form of the Shakespearean sonnet, retaining the three quatrains plus couplet structure but reducing the metre to iambic tetrameter
and specifying a distinct rhyme-scheme: the first quatrain is cross-rhymed (abab), the second couplet-rhymed (ccdd), and the third arch-rhymed (or chiasmic, effe), so that the whole is ababccddeffegg. Additionally, Pushkin required that the first rhyme in each couplet (the a, c, and e rhymes) be unstressed (or 'feminine'), and all others stressed (or 'masculine'): not all those using the Onegin stanza have followed the prescription, but Vikram Seth notably did so, and the cadence
of the unstressed rhymes is an important factor in his manipulations of tone.
Narrative poetry
Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...
in which a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
rather than prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
. Either simple or complex stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
ic verse-forms may be used, but there will usually be a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a novelistic manner.
History
Verse narratives are as old as the epic of GilgameshGilgamesh
Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, modern day Iraq , placing his reign ca. 2500 BC. According to the Sumerian king list he reigned for 126 years. In the Tummal Inscription, Gilgamesh, and his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, in Tummal, a sacred quarter in her city of...
, the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
, and the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, but the verse novel is a distinct modern form. Although the narrative structure is similar to that of a novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
, the organisation of the story is usually in a series of short sections, often with changing perspectives. Verse novels are often told with multiple narrators, potentially providing readers with a cinematic view into the inner workings of the characters' minds. Some verse novels, following Byron's mock-heroic
Mock-heroic
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature...
Don Juan
Don Juan (Byron)
Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire"...
(1818–24) employ an informal, colloquial register. Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin.It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes . It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832...
(1831) by Alexander Pushkin is a classical example, and with Pan Tadeusz
Pan Tadeusz
Pan Tadeusz, the full title in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz...
(1834) by Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...
is often taken as the seminal example of the modern genre.
The major nineteenth-century verse novels that ground the form in Anglophone letters include The Bothie of Toper-na-fuisich (1848) and Amours de Voyage (1858) by Arthur Hugh Clough
Arthur Hugh Clough
Arthur Hugh Clough was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to ground-breaking nurse Florence Nightingale...
, Aurora Leigh
Aurora Leigh
Aurora Leigh is an eponymous epic novel/poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poem is written in blank verse and encompasses nine books . It is a first person narration, from the point of view of Aurora; its other heroine, Marian Erle, is an abused self-taught child of itinerant parents...
(1857) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
, Lucile
Lucile (poem)
Lucile was a verse novel written by Robert Bulwer-Lytton writing under the pen name Owen Meredith, and published in 1860. The poem is a narrative told in an anapaest meter...
(1860) by 'Owen Meredith' (Robert Bulwer-Lytton
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC was an English statesman and poet...
), and The Ring and the Book
The Ring and the Book
The Ring and the Book is a long dramatic narrative poem, and, more specifically, a verse novel, of 21,000 lines, written by Robert Browning...
(1868-9) by Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
. The form appears to have declined with Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, but has since the 1960s-70s undergone a remarkable revival. Of particular note, Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
's The Golden Gate (1986) was a surprise bestseller, and Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
's Omeros
Omeros
Omeros is a 1990 epic poem by Nobel Prize-winning author Derek Walcott. Many consider it his finest work.-Overview:The epic is set on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Although its name is Omeros it has just a minor touch of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.The narrative of Omeros is multilayered...
(1990) a more predictable success. The form has been particularly popular in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, with work since 1980 by Walcott, Edward Kamau Brathwaite
Edward Kamau Brathwaite
Edward Kamau Brathwaite is widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. A professor of Comparative Literature at New York University, Brathwaite is the 2006 International Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry, Born to Slow Horses.Brathwaite...
, David Dabydeen
David Dabydeen
David Dabydeen is a Guyanese-born critic, writer and novelist.Dabydeen was born in Berbice, Guyana, his birth registered at New Amsterdam Registrar of Births as David Horace Clarence Harilal Sookram...
, Kwame Dawes
Kwame Dawes
Kwame Senu Neville Dawes is a poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He currently works as editor-in-chief at the Prairie Schooner. -Life:...
, Ralph Thompson
Ralph Thompson
Ralph Thompson MBE was an artist and book illustrator, who specialized in pen and ink sketches of animal subjects. His most noteworthy works are his series of book illustrations for the famous naturalist and author Gerald Durrell in the period 1954 to 1964 when Durrell was associated with the...
, George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke, OC is a Canadian poet and playwright. His work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian community of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as "Africadia".-Life:Born to William and Geraldine...
and Fred D'Aguiar
Fred D'Aguiar
Fred D'Aguiar is an author of poetry, novels, and drama.D'Aguiar was born in London. His parents were Guyanese. He spent his childhood, from the age of two to twelve, in Guyana. His work has received much, and growing, acclaim. His Bill of Rights, about the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, was a...
, and in Australia and New Zealand, with work since 1990 by Les Murray
Les Murray (poet)
Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
, John Tranter
John Tranter
John Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
, Dorothy Porter
Dorothy Porter
Dorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
, Chris Orsman, David Foster
David Foster (novelist)
David Manning Foster is an Australian novelist. He is one of the most adventurous writers of his generation, publishing a range of satires and considerations of the decline of Western civilization...
, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, and Robert Sullivan
Robert Sullivan (New Zealand poet)
Robert Sullivan is an important Māori writer from Aotearoa/New Zealand.-Biography & Writing:Robert Sullivan is of Māori and Irish descent. He belongs to the Māori tribes Ngā Puhi as well as to Kāi Tahu and describes himself as multicultural...
.
The parallel history of the verse autobiography, from strong Victorian foundation with Wordsworth's The Prelude (1805, 1850), to decline with Modernism and later twentieth-century revival with John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
's Summoned by Bells (1960), Walcott's Another Life
Another Life
Another Life is an American television soap opera produced and broadcast by the Christian Broadcasting Network from June 1, 1981 to October 5, 1984...
(1973), and James Merrill
James Merrill
James Ingram Merrill was an American poet whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Divine Comedies...
's The Changing Light at Sandover
The Changing Light at Sandover
The Changing Light at Sandover is a 560-page epic poem by James Merrill . Sometimes described as a postmodern apocalyptic epic, the poem was published in three separate installments between 1976 and 1980, and in its entirety in 1982...
(1982), is also striking. The forms are distinct, but many verse novels plainly deploy autobiographical elements, and the recent Commonwealth
Commonwealth
Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...
examples almost all offer detailed representation of the (problems besetting) post-imperial and post-colonial identity, and so are inevitably strongly personal works.
There is also a distinct recent cluster of verse novels for younger readers, most notably Karen Hesse
Karen Hesse
Karen Hesse is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.-Life:...
's Out of the Dust
Out of the Dust
Out of the Dust is a verse novel written by Karen Hesse. It was the winner of the Newbery Medal in 1998, Scott O'Dell Award, an ALA Notable Children's Book, an ALA "Best book", a School Library Journal "best book of the year", a Booklist "Editors' Choice" award, a Book Links "Lasting Connection", a...
, which won a Newbery Medal
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
in 1998. Hesse followed it with Witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
(2001). Since then, many new titles have cropped up, with authors Sonya Sones
Sonya Sones
Sonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written four young adult novels in verse, as well as a novel in verse for adults and a picture book.-Biography:...
, Ellen Hopkins
Ellen Hopkins
Ellen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
, Steven Herrick
Steven Herrick
Steven Herrick is an Australian poet. Writing mainly free verse, Herrick has published eighteen books of poetry for adults, young adults and children....
, Margaret Wild
Margaret Wild
Margaret Wild is an Australian author. She was born in 1948 in Eschew, a small town in South Africa, and came to Australia in 1972. She now lives in Sydney. Before becoming a fulltime writer, Margaret was a journalist for newspapers and magazines and then she worked for sixteen years as a book...
, Nikki Grimes
Nikki Grimes
Nikki Grimes is an American author and illustrator of books written for children and young adults, as well as a poet and journalist. Grimes was born in Harlem, New York....
, Virginia Euwer Wolff
Virginia Euwer Wolff
Virginia Euwer Wolff is a prize-winning American author of children's literature, born in Portland, Oregon 25 Aug 1937. She attended an all-girls' school called St. Helen's Hall , before attending Smith College. She married Arthur Richard Wolff in 1959...
, Ann Warren Turner, Lorie Ann Grover, Brenda Seabrooke, Paul B. Janeczko, and Mel Glenn all publishing multiple titles.
Versification
Long classical verse narratives were in stichicStichic
Poetry made up of lines of the same meter and length, not broken up into stanzas or verses, is called stichic....
forms, prescribing a metre but not specifying any interlineal relations. This tradition is represented in English letters by the use of blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
(unrhymed iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in that line. That rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables; these small groups of syllables are called "feet"...
), as by both Brownings and many later poets. But since Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
and Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
complex stanza-forms have also been used for verse narratives, including terza rima
Terza rima
Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. It was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.-Form:Terza rima is a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D...
(aba bcb cdc etc.) and ottava rima
Ottava rima
Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio....
(abababcc), and modern poets have experimented widely with adaptations and combinations of stanza-forms.
The stanza most specifically associated with the verse novel is the Onegin stanza
Onegin stanza
Onegin stanza refers to the verse form invented by Alexander Pushkin for his interpersonal epic Eugene Onegin...
, invented by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin.It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes . It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832...
. It is an adapted form of the Shakespearean sonnet, retaining the three quatrains plus couplet structure but reducing the metre to iambic tetrameter
Iambic tetrameter
Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line; iambic tetrameter is a line comprising four iambs...
and specifying a distinct rhyme-scheme: the first quatrain is cross-rhymed (abab), the second couplet-rhymed (ccdd), and the third arch-rhymed (or chiasmic, effe), so that the whole is ababccddeffegg. Additionally, Pushkin required that the first rhyme in each couplet (the a, c, and e rhymes) be unstressed (or 'feminine'), and all others stressed (or 'masculine'): not all those using the Onegin stanza have followed the prescription, but Vikram Seth notably did so, and the cadence
Cadence
Cadence may refer to:Music:*Cadence , a melodic configuration the end of a phrase, section, or piece of music*Cadence Magazine, a monthly review of jazz, blues and improvised music...
of the unstressed rhymes is an important factor in his manipulations of tone.
Recent examples
- The Boys Who Stole the Funeral, Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
(Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1980) - The Illusionists, John FullerJohn Fuller (poet)John Fuller is an English poet and author, and Fellow Emeritus at Magdalen College, Oxford.Fuller was born in Ashford, Kent, England, the son of poet and Oxford Professor Roy Fuller, and educated at St Paul's School and New College, Oxford. He began teaching in 1962 at the State University of New...
(London: Secker & Warburg, 1980) - Midquest: A Poem, Fred ChappellFred ChappellFred Davis Chappell is an author and poet. He retired after 40 years as an English professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997-2002...
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981) - The Golden Gate, Vikram SethVikram SethVikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
(London: Faber & Faber, 1986) - Love, Death and the Changing of the Seasons, Marilyn HackerMarilyn HackerMarilyn Hacker is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English at the City College of New York....
(New York: Norton, 1986) - OmerosOmerosOmeros is a 1990 epic poem by Nobel Prize-winning author Derek Walcott. Many consider it his finest work.-Overview:The epic is set on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Although its name is Omeros it has just a minor touch of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.The narrative of Omeros is multilayered...
, Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
(London: Faber & Faber, 1990) - Whylah FallsWhylah FallsWhylah Falls is a long narrative poem by George Elliott Clarke, published in book form in 1990.As with much of Clarke's work, the poem is inspired by the history and culture of the Black Canadian community in Nova Scotia, which he refers to as the "Africadian" community...
, George Elliott ClarkeGeorge Elliott ClarkeGeorge Elliott Clarke, OC is a Canadian poet and playwright. His work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian community of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as "Africadia".-Life:Born to William and Geraldine...
(Vancouver: Polestar, 1990; rev. ed. 2000) - Akhenaten, Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press, 1992) - The Floor of Heaven, John TranterJohn TranterJohn Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
(Sydney: Collins Angus & Robertson, 1992) - The Monkey's Mask: An Erotic Murder Mystery, Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(Sydney: Hyland House Publishing, 1994) - History: The Home Movie, Craig RaineCraig RaineCraig Raine is an English poet and critic born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. Along with Christopher Reid, he is the best-known exponent of Martian poetry.-Life:...
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1994) - Turner, David DabydeenDavid DabydeenDavid Dabydeen is a Guyanese-born critic, writer and novelist.Dabydeen was born in Berbice, Guyana, his birth registered at New Amsterdam Registrar of Births as David Horace Clarence Harilal Sookram...
(London: Jonathan Cape, 1994) - Prophets, Kwame DawesKwame DawesKwame Senu Neville Dawes is a poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He currently works as editor-in-chief at the Prairie Schooner. -Life:...
(Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 1995) - Jacko Jacobus, Kwame DawesKwame DawesKwame Senu Neville Dawes is a poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He currently works as editor-in-chief at the Prairie Schooner. -Life:...
(Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 1996) - South: An Antarctic Journey, Chris Orsman (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1996)
- Autobiography of RedAutobiography of RedAutobiography of Red is a verse novel by Anne Carson, based loosely on the myth of Geryon and the Tenth Labor of Herakles, especially on surviving fragments of the lyric poet Stesichorus' poem Geryoneis....
, Anne CarsonAnne CarsonAnne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics. Carson lived in Montreal for several years and taught at McGill University, the University of Michigan, and at Princeton University from 1980-1987....
(New York: Knopf, 1998) - Bill of Rights, Fred D'AguiarFred D'AguiarFred D'Aguiar is an author of poetry, novels, and drama.D'Aguiar was born in London. His parents were Guyanese. He spent his childhood, from the age of two to twelve, in Guyana. His work has received much, and growing, acclaim. His Bill of Rights, about the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, was a...
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1998) - Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse, Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
(Manchester: Carcanet, 1999) - Jack, the Lady Killer, H. R. F. KeatingH. R. F. KeatingHenry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.-Life:...
(Hexham: Flambard, 1999) - What a Piece of Work, Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(Sydney: Picador, 1999) - Bloodlines, Fred D'AguiarFred D'AguiarFred D'Aguiar is an author of poetry, novels, and drama.D'Aguiar was born in London. His parents were Guyanese. He spent his childhood, from the age of two to twelve, in Guyana. His work has received much, and growing, acclaim. His Bill of Rights, about the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, was a...
(London: Chatto & Windus, 2000) - Tiepolo's Hound, Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
(London: Faber & Faber, 2000) - Maori Battalion: A Poetic Sequence, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press, 2001)
- The Beauty of the Husband, Anne CarsonAnne CarsonAnne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics. Carson lived in Montreal for several years and taught at McGill University, the University of Michigan, and at Princeton University from 1980-1987....
(London: Jonathan Cape, 2001) - Ancestors, Edward Kamau BrathwaiteEdward Kamau BrathwaiteEdward Kamau Brathwaite is widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. A professor of Comparative Literature at New York University, Brathwaite is the 2006 International Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry, Born to Slow Horses.Brathwaite...
(New York: New Directions Press, 2001) - Darlington's Fall, Brad LeithauserBrad LeithauserBrad E. Leithauser is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. After serving as the Emily Dickinson Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College and visiting professor at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is now on faculty at The...
(New York: Knopf, 2002) - Wild Surmise, Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(Sydney: Picador, 2002) - Captain Cook in the Underworld, Robert SullivanRobert Sullivan (New Zealand poet)Robert Sullivan is an important Māori writer from Aotearoa/New Zealand.-Biography & Writing:Robert Sullivan is of Māori and Irish descent. He belongs to the Māori tribes Ngā Puhi as well as to Kāi Tahu and describes himself as multicultural...
(Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2002) - The Prodigal (verse novel), Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
(London: Faber & Faber, 2004) - This Barren Land My Bed of Roses (verse novel), Ayana Noble (University of Queensland Press, 2006)
- The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, Margarita EngleMargarita EngleMargarita Engle is the Cuban American winner of the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino.-Biography:She was a botanist and professor at California State Polytechnic University.Her young adult novels in verse include:...
(Juvenile/Children's) (New York: Henry Holt, 2006) - Nine Hours North, Tim SinclairTim SinclairTim Sinclair is an Australian poet and novelist resident in Sydney.Best known for the verse novel Nine Hours North , he is also the author of the poetry collections Re:reading the dictionary and Vapour Trails, and a collaborator on the spoken word concept...
(Melbourne: Penguin, 2006) - Muscle, Matthew SchreuderMatthew SchreuderMatthew Schreuder is a writer, who lives in Sydney, Australia. In 2006 his verse novel 'Muscle' was short listed and highly commended in the annual 'The Australian'/Vogel Literary Award. 'Muscle' has been commended for offering originality and a very contemporary story of astute social observations...
(Sydney: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2007) - El Dorado, Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(Sydney: Picador, 2007) - ZorgamazooZorgamazooZorgamazoo is Canadian children's author Robert Paul Weston's first novel. The work is a fantasy adventure, written entirely in rhyming anapestic tetrameter....
, Robert Paul WestonRobert Paul WestonRobert Paul Weston is a British-born Canadian children's author. His debut was the award-winning novel-in-verse, Zorgamazoo. His short fiction has appeared in literary journals in Canada, the UK and the United States....
(New York: Penguin/Razorbill, 2008) - I & I, George Elliott ClarkeGeorge Elliott ClarkeGeorge Elliott Clarke, OC is a Canadian poet and playwright. His work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian community of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as "Africadia".-Life:Born to William and Geraldine...
(Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Editions, 2009) - View from Mount DiabloView from Mount DiabloView from Mount Diablo is a verse novel by Ralph Thompson , which won the Jamaican National Literary Award in manuscript in 2001, and was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2003...
, Ralph ThompsonRalph Thompson (poet)Ralph Thompson, C.D. , is a Jamaican businessman, educational activist, artist and poet.- Life and Business Career :Thompson was born in Poughkeepsie, NY to a Jamaican mother and US father, but the marriage lasted only three years, and from 1931 he and his sister were raised in Jamaica...
(Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2003; rev. & annotated ed., 2009)
Novels in Verse for Teens
- Frenchtown Summer, Robert CormierRobert CormierRobert Edmund Cormier was an American author, columnist and reporter, known for his deeply pessimistic, downbeat literature. His most popular works include I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down and The Chocolate War, all of which have won awards. The Chocolate War was challenged...
(New York: Random House, 1999) - Heartbeat, Sharon CreechSharon CreechSharon Creech is an American novelist of children's fiction.-Biography:Sharon Creech was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where she grew up with her parents , one sister , and three brothers...
(New York: HarperCollins, 2004) - Dark Sons, Nikki GrimesNikki GrimesNikki Grimes is an American author and illustrator of books written for children and young adults, as well as a poet and journalist. Grimes was born in Harlem, New York....
(New York: Hyperion Books, 2005) - Downtown Boy, Juan Felipe HerreraJuan Felipe HerreraJuan Felipe Herrera is a poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist.The only son of María de la Luz Quintana and Felipe Emilio Herrera, the three were campesinos living from crop to crop, and from tractor to trailer to tents on the roads of the San Joaquín Valley, Southern...
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999) - By the River, Steven HerrickSteven HerrickSteven Herrick is an Australian poet. Writing mainly free verse, Herrick has published eighteen books of poetry for adults, young adults and children....
(Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2004 - Kissing Annabel, Steven HerrickSteven HerrickSteven Herrick is an Australian poet. Writing mainly free verse, Herrick has published eighteen books of poetry for adults, young adults and children....
(New York: Simon Pulse, 2009) - The Wolf, Steven HerrickSteven HerrickSteven Herrick is an Australian poet. Writing mainly free verse, Herrick has published eighteen books of poetry for adults, young adults and children....
(Honesdale: Front Street, 2007) - Cold Skin, Steven HerrickSteven HerrickSteven Herrick is an Australian poet. Writing mainly free verse, Herrick has published eighteen books of poetry for adults, young adults and children....
(Honesdale: Front Street, 2009) - Aleutian Sparrow, Karen HesseKaren HesseKaren Hesse is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.-Life:...
(New York, Simon & Shuster, 2003) - Out of the Dust, Karen HesseKaren HesseKaren Hesse is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.-Life:...
(New York: Scholastic, 1997) - Witness, Karen HesseKaren HesseKaren Hesse is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.-Life:...
(New York: Scholastic, 2001) - CrankCrank (novel)Crank is a novel by Ellen Hopkins published in 2004.- Synopsis :Kristina, a gifted, quiet, well-behaved girl high school junior goes to Reno, Nevada to see her father. When she goes, the first night she meets a boy named Adam. They are instantly attracted to each other...
, Ellen HopkinsEllen HopkinsEllen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
(New York: Simon Pulse, 2006) - Glass, Ellen HopkinsEllen HopkinsEllen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
(New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007) - ImpulseImpulse (novel)Impulse is a 2007 American young adult novel in verse written by Ellen Hopkins.Author's descriptionConner is the perfect boy. He's handsome, has amazing grades, and is amazing at sports. His family seems like the poster family for the magazines. He and his sister are supposed to be perfect. His...
, Ellen HopkinsEllen HopkinsEllen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
(New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007) - Burned, Ellen HopkinsEllen HopkinsEllen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
(New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007) - Identical, Ellen HopkinsEllen HopkinsEllen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
(New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008) - Tricks, Ellen HopkinsEllen HopkinsEllen Hopkins is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.-Career:...
(New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009) - Realm of Possibility, David LevithanDavid LevithanDavid Levithan is an American young-adult fiction editor and award-winning author. His first book, Boy Meets Boy, was published in 2003...
(New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008) - Street Love, Walter Dean MyersWalter Dean MyersWalter Dean Myers is an African American author of young adult literature. Myers has written over fifty books, including novels and nonfiction works. He has won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times...
(New York, CarperCollins, 2007) - The Weight of the Sky, Lisa Ann SandellLisa Ann SandellLisa Ann Sandell is an American author of young adult novels. She has written and published three books, A Map of the Known World, Song of the Sparrow, The Weight of the Sky, and 21 Proms.-Biography:...
, (New York: Viking, 2006) - Song of the SparrowSong of the SparrowSong of the Sparrow is a young adult novel by Lisa Ann Sandell, published in 2007. It is written completely in lyrical form. It is set during the Dark Ages in Britain and is a retelling of the story of The Lady of Shalott a figure from Arthurian legend....
, Lisa Ann SandellLisa Ann SandellLisa Ann Sandell is an American author of young adult novels. She has written and published three books, A Map of the Known World, Song of the Sparrow, The Weight of the Sky, and 21 Proms.-Biography:...
, (New York: Scholastic, 2008) - One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother DiesOne of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother DiesOne of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies is a novel in verse by Sonya Sones. It is a young adult novel that tells the story of Ruby Milliken who is forced to go live with her famous movie star father, Whip Logan, in Los Angeles when her mother dies...
, Sonya SonesSonya SonesSonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written four young adult novels in verse, as well as a novel in verse for adults and a picture book.-Biography:...
(New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2001) - Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went CrazyStop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went CrazyStop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy is a novel in verse by Sonya Sones. The free verse novel follows Cookie, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose older sister is hospitalized on Christmas Eve when she has an intense breakdown that is eventually diagnosed as manic depression...
, Sonya SonesSonya SonesSonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written four young adult novels in verse, as well as a novel in verse for adults and a picture book.-Biography:...
(New York: HarperTeen, 2001) - What My Mother Doesn't KnowWhat My Mother Doesn't KnowWhat My Mother Doesn't Know is a novel in verse by Sonya Sones. The free verse novel follows ninth-grader Sophie Stein as she struggles through the daily grind of being a freshman in high school, her romantic crushes and family life....
, Sonya SonesSonya SonesSonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written four young adult novels in verse, as well as a novel in verse for adults and a picture book.-Biography:...
(New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2001) - What My Girlfriend Doesn't KnowWhat My Girlfriend Doesn't KnowWhat My Girlfriend Doesn't Know is a novel in verse by Sonya Sones. The free verse novel follows ninth-grader Robin as he struggles with being an outsider at his high school and dealing with the joys of having a girlfriend, Sophie, and seeing his artistic talent recognized by his teacher and...
, Sonya SonesSonya SonesSonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written four young adult novels in verse, as well as a novel in verse for adults and a picture book.-Biography:...
(New York, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2007) - Jinx, Margaret WildMargaret WildMargaret Wild is an Australian author. She was born in 1948 in Eschew, a small town in South Africa, and came to Australia in 1972. She now lives in Sydney. Before becoming a fulltime writer, Margaret was a journalist for newspapers and magazines and then she worked for sixteen years as a book...
(New York: Simon Pulse, 2004) - One Night, Margaret WildMargaret WildMargaret Wild is an Australian author. She was born in 1948 in Eschew, a small town in South Africa, and came to Australia in 1972. She now lives in Sydney. Before becoming a fulltime writer, Margaret was a journalist for newspapers and magazines and then she worked for sixteen years as a book...
(New York: Random House, 2006) - Make Lemonade, Virginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer Wolff is a prize-winning American author of children's literature, born in Portland, Oregon 25 Aug 1937. She attended an all-girls' school called St. Helen's Hall , before attending Smith College. She married Arthur Richard Wolff in 1959...
(New York: Scholastic, 1994) - True Believer, Virginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer Wolff is a prize-winning American author of children's literature, born in Portland, Oregon 25 Aug 1937. She attended an all-girls' school called St. Helen's Hall , before attending Smith College. She married Arthur Richard Wolff in 1959...
(New York, Simon Pulse, 2002) - This Full House, Virginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer WolffVirginia Euwer Wolff is a prize-winning American author of children's literature, born in Portland, Oregon 25 Aug 1937. She attended an all-girls' school called St. Helen's Hall , before attending Smith College. She married Arthur Richard Wolff in 1959...
(New York: HarperCollins, 2009)