Christopher Buckley – författare

Readers and critics alike have applauded Philip Levine's poems for their eloquent and elegiac narrative and their vivas for the dignity of the human spirit. In 1987 Levine received the esteemed Ruth Lilly Prize, given by the Modern Poetry Association and the American Council for the Arts in recognition of outstanding poetic achievement. On the Poetry of Philip Levine, the first critical collection to focus on this original and highly acclaimed poet, selects essays and reviews that span three decades. Included are pieces by Richard Howard, Stephen Yenser, Ralph J. Mills, Jr., and Dave Smith.UNDER DISCUSSION Donald Hall, General Editor

Nick Naylor is just a regular guy trying to earn a living. In these neo-puritanical times, it's a challenge to defend the rights of smokers and a privilege to promote their liberty. Sure, it hurts a little when you're compared to Nazi war criminals, but Nick's just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage and put his son through school. As chief propagandist for the tobacco industry he can handle the insults from the antismoking zealots, but death threats are a different matter. Someone wants to prove just how hazardous smoking can be - and if Nick isn't careful, he's going to be stubbed out.A humorous and thought-provoking novel, Thank You for Smoking gets people talking. The multi-award winning film adaptation, starring Aaron Eckhart, was released to widespread acclaim.

One of America's most hilarious novelists and bestselling author of Thank You For Smoking returns with a biting comedy about generational warfare, political shenanigans and the power of PR spin.Cassandra Devine, a charismatic 29-year-old blogger and member of Generation Whatever, is outraged over the excesses of the Baby Boomer generation and their negligent handling of the mounting Social Security debt.When she politely suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by the age of seventy-five, it catches the imagination of millions of outraged citizens, including an ambitious senator who sees this as his ticket to becoming President.With the help of Washington's greatest spin doctor, the blogger and the politician try to ride the issue of euthanasia for Boomers all the way to the White House, over the objections of the Religious Right and, of course, the Boomers themselves, who are deeply offended by demonstrations on the golf courses of their retirement resorts...

Star Journal is a selection of poems from Christopher Buckley's twenty previous collections, from 1980-2014.Past praise from Philip Levine: "The poems are modest, straight forward, intensely lyrical and totally accessible. . . . This is a humble poetry of great truths and profound emotions that never overstates its concerns for the events both in and above the world. It rewards countless readings and never betrays itself."—Ploughshares

Philip Levine is one of the foremost poets of the last fifty years, but moreover he is a master and unparalleled practitioner of the long poem in our time. No recent poet has written as many exceptional long poems as Levine, and his influence has continued virtually undisturbed since his death in 2015.In this new anthology, twenty-one prominent American poets testify to Levine's immense importance and his singular mastery of the long poem's many forms, offering an important discussion of the signature form of one of the great poets of the English language. Contributors include Kelly Cherry, Kate Daniels, Peter Everwine, Kathy Fagan, Christopher Howell, Richard Jackson, Mark Jarman, Dorianne Laux, Paul Mariani, and many more.

In an attempt to gain Congressional approval for a top secret weapons system, Washington lobbyist "Bird" McIntyre and sexy Neo-Con wonkette Angel Templeton start a rumour that the Chinese secret service is trying to assassinate the Dalai Lama. Their outrageous scheme provokes a series of crises involving the White House, the CIA, and a strangely sympathetic and vulnerable Chinese president, with both countries veering perilously towards war.Buckley has drawn his most convincing and outrageous characters to date: Bird, failed novelist of amusingly awful Clancy-esque thrillers; Angel, combination Anne Coulter and Ayn Rand; Bird's demanding, equestrian wife, Myndi; Bewks, his feckless but endearing Civil War re-enactor brother; the mild-mannered Chinese President Fa and his devoted aide Gang, manoeuvring desperately against sinister Politburo hard-liners Minister Lo and General Han. Blending the skewering genius of Thank You For Smoking with Dr. Strangelove's dark comedy, They Eat Puppies Don't They? has something to offend -- and amuse -- everyone.Praise for Christopher Buckely: "One of the funniest writers in the English language." Tom Wolfe."A Benchley with WordPerfect." John Updike."An effervescent joy." Joseph Heller.

The Columbianna, an ancient tramp steamer with a notably eccentric crew, 200 layers of paint on her decks, a sailing history going back to 1945, and demons in her plumbing, was crossing the Atlantic for the umpteenth time—but on this occasion with a sharp-eyed observer, whose brilliant account brings to life the harshness, humor, and bizarreness of life on board. Steaming to Bamboola is a story of the author's time at sea. He tells first-hand about typhoons, cargoes, smuggling, mid-ocean burials, rescues, stowaways, hard places, hard drinking and hard romance. It is the tale of a ship and her crew, men fated to wander for a living--always steaming to, but never quite reaching, Bamboola. The was the first book by renowned author and humorist Christopher Buckley, which was originally published in 1982 to glowing reviews. Forty years and over a twenty books and hundreds of articles later, Buckley introduces Columbianna and her roguish crew to a new generation of readers.

Christopher Buckley investigates the large, unanswerable questions that have dogged humanity since the Beginning. Often the seascapes along the California coast toss their debris of ontological doubts upon the shores of his writing . . . uncertainties  concerning God, the human condition, the limits of our knowing, and the  universe.Buckley’s poetry provides readers with the constant blending of beautiful language and stirring content. Full of emotion, Varieties of Religious Experience promises to deliver meaningful messages.

Philip Levine came to teach at Fresno State in 1958 and Peter Everwine followed in 1962; C.G. Hanclicek came in 1966 and the initial group of Fresno poets collected here became students and colleagues of theirs.  Sadly, about one third of the poets in Naming the Lost are no longer with us. This book focuses then on the community of poets first coming through Fresno, beginning in the early 1960s, starting it all off.Naming the Lost preserves an amazing nexus of poetic talent and fellowship, and documents the providence that brought so many outstanding poets to Fresno - early '60s through the '80s - a confluence and coincidence of talent and personalities unlikely to be seen again.

About Christopher Buckley, the late poet Peter Everwine writes, 'I don't think that I know of another poet who has such vertical range and depth' Buckley manages to have one foot in the physical muck and tenderness of the world and the other foot planted among the stars and galaxies of the universe.'  Buckley's newest collection, Pre-Eternity of the World, is persistently the kind of poetry Everwine describes.  In the title poem, Buckley describes pre-eternity as 'loads of quantum confetti / ad infinitum . . . under the floorboards / of time . . . . Go figure.' But, is this a simple dismissal, or is the poet asking the reader to calculate the incalculable?  He asks, 'Did our parents fight WW II / just so we could go to double features / on Saturday,' watch black and white television, or 'lie on a hill after school / letting our imaginations run off / with cloud formations?  That's about it.'  These sorts of questions, cynical as they might be, are surprising and liberating, and he writes of intelligent design, of vacillation, and of science and math; the poet is 'called on' to stand 'bewildered.'  Such is the beauty of Buckley's poetry, with 'Nothing but time to stop me / thinking.'