To celebrate Burning Deck’s 40th anniversary, this anthology presents poetry and prose published in the years 1981-2001. It is a sequel to the anthology, A Century in Two Decades (Burning Deck 1961-81). Authors include the poets Rae Armantrout, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Robert Creeley, Tina Darragh, Michael Davidson, Michael Gizzi, Peter Gizzi, Lisa Jarnot, Jackson Mac Low, Harry Mathews, Mark McMorris, Ron Silliman, Cole Swensen, Marjorie Welish, John Yau, prose writers Walter Abish, Paul Auster, Robert Coover, John Hawkes, Dallas Wiebe, and in translation, Xue Di, Friederike Mayröcker, Ernst Jandl, Oskar Pastior, Marcel Cohen, Emmanuel Hocquard, Pascal Quignard.

The volume also contains a full bibliography of Burning Deck Press from 1981-2001.

“Astonishingly, their deck still burns 40 years later, still illuminating the frontiers of the uncompromisingly literary, far beyond the safer neon glow of Random House, Harper Collins or Doubleday with their six-figure advances.”

—Doug Riggs, The Providence Journal

“In their understated way, the Waldrops... provide a forum for works of unconventional, innovative character.”

—Joseph Barbato, Publishers Weekly

“Burning Deck is our major source for the latest poetry from Germany and France.”

—Eliot Weinberger, American Poet