Anne Carson consistently dazzles with her inventive, shape-shifting work and the vividness of her imagination. Float reaches an even greater level of brilliance and surprise. Presented in an arrestingly original format - individual chapbooks that can be read in any order, and that float inside a transparent case - this collection conjures a mix of voices, time periods, and structures to explore what makes people, memories, and stories "maddeningly attractive" when observed in spaces that are suggestively in-between. One can begin with Carson contemplating Proust on a frozen Icelandic plain, or on the art-saturated streets of downtown New York City. Or journey to the peak of Mount Olympus, where Zeus ponders his own afterlife. Or find a chorus of Gertrude Steins performing an essay about falling - -a piece that also unearths poignant memories of Carson's own father and great-uncle in rural Canada. And a poem called "Wildly Constant" piercingly explores the highs and lows of marriage and monogamy, distilled in a wife's waking up her husband from the darkness of night, and asking him to make them eggs for breakfast. Anne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics. A professor of the classics, with background in classical languages, comparative literature, anthropology, history, and commercial art, Carson blends ideas and themes from many fields in her writing. She frequently references, modernizes, and translates Ancient Greek literature. She taught at McGill University, the University of Michigan, and at Princeton University.

By chance the cycladic people -- Candor -- Cassandra float can -- Contempts: a study of profit and nonprofit in Homer, Moravia and Godard -- The designated mourner by Wally Shawn, final production, NYC, June 2013 -- Eras of Yves Klein -- Good dog I, II, and III -- How to like "If I told him: a completed portrait of Picasso" by Gertrude Stein -- L.A. -- Maintenance -- Merry Christmas from Hegel -- Nelligan: some poems translated from the French -- 108 (flotage) -- Performance notes -- Pinplay: a version of Euripides' Bacchae -- Possessive used as drink (me): a lecture on pronouns in the form of 15 sonnets -- Powerless structures fig. 11 (Sanne) -- Pronoun envy -- Stacks -- Uncle falling: a pair of lyric lectures with shared chorus -- Variations on the right to remain silent -- Wildly constant -- Zeusbits.