“I AM A POET WHO KNOWS THE SOCIAL POWER OF POETRY, A UNITED STATES CITIZEN WHO KNOWS HERSELF IRREVOCABLY TANGLED IN HER SOCIETY’S HOPES, ARROGANCE, AND DESPAIR,” ADRIENNE RICH WRITES.

In Arts of the Possible, one of America’s most distinguished poets explores the complex relationship between art and social justice. This collection traces one writer’s engagement with her time, her arguments both with herself and with others. These essays call on the fluidity of the imagination, from poetic vision to social justice, from the badlands of political demoralization to an art that might wound, that may open scars when engaged in its work, but will finally suture and not tear apart.

This volume gathers Rich's essays and interviews from the last decade of the twentieth century, including the landmark pieces “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision” and “Blood, Bread, and Poetry: The Location of the Poet.”