Alfred Corn is the author of nine books of poetry, a novel, a study of prosody, and a collection of essays. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and others, he has traveled widely, but has made New York City his primary residence. As an art critic, he writes for Art in America and ARTNews. He taught at Yale, UCLA, Columbia University, and for 2001-2002 held the Bell Chair at the University of Tulsa.

About Contradictions:

"Alfred Corn is one of our finest living poets."
—The Nation

"Corn’s formal range is everywhere apparent. But as he understands art to be ‘always more than technical virtuosity,’ his poetry never merely displays his considerable poetic skills, but rather becomes a mode of thought, an inquiry into art and passion, the limits of mastery, mortality, divinity, and the possible destiny of the human soul."
—Carolyn Forche

"Alfred Corn's Contradictions are open, ardent, and subtle. They ask us to imagine, feel, notice, dream, think, all at once. They are lively in cadence and meter, quick in insight. The result is not a compound but an essence, not flamboyant but poignant. They reaffirm language's truth-claim, disclosing a sense-rooted local truth, a non-consumable good."
—Marie Ponsot