Books by Cole Swensen

A collection of hybrid essays on landscape and visual art that implicitly recognizes our obligations to the earth and presents the earth in ways that make others recognize them too.

On Walking On looks outward onto-or rather, walks through-the work of various writers for whom walking was or is an important element of daily life. The number of writers who were or are serious walkers is striking, and the connection goes back to antiquity, more recently including Woolf, Nerval, Sand, Debord, Sebald, and many others.

A poetry-essay meditation on the cultural and physical forces of the river

A chapbook of prose poems on existence and the self, with French on facing pages

The poems in this book explore the intersection of writing with the visual arts, particularly late medieval and early Reniassance paintings. They also explore writing as a visual vehicle, both as a pattern across a field and as a catalyst for imagery.