“Epstein is basically a poet of love and celebration. His greatest strengths are wit and tenderness, a kind of energetic muscularity and great technical skill.”
“There have not been many poet-biographers in this country. Carl Sandburg and John Berryman come to mind... Daniel Mark Epstein, author of seven volumes of poetry and now a fourth biography, is part of this select company. He writes not as a poet and biographer but as an amalgam of both.”
“A beautiful stylist.”
Cruel April: Poems from the Pandemic
These poems were written in ten days, from April 5-15, 2020, during the first shelter-in-place orders of the coronavirus pandemic. The full sequence of sonnets explores the themes of isolation, danger, and the strangeness of our new reality. A selection of them is now appearing as a dramatic reading with the voices of Tyne Daly, Jennifer Van Dyck, Paul Hecht, and Harris Yulin accompanied by visual art, available on Youtube, https://youtu.be/SDJ4TKPqNTc
"This may have happened centuries ago
to strangers who told a different tale
of pestilence and calamity on a scale
thought unthinkable, then just as now."
Featured Book
“A gripping history of a family torn apart by political upheaval. In this fresh contribution to the abundant biographies of Benjamin Franklin and histories of the American Revolution . . . Epstein focuses on the relationship between Franklin and his illegitimate son, William, who rose to become a political force in his own right. . . . Drawing on much unpublished correspondence as well as published works, the author constructs a fast-paced, vivid narrative with a host of characters whose appearance and personality he etches with deft concision. . . . A perceptive, gritty portrayal of the frenzy of war and a father and son caught at its tumultuous center.”
“Daniel Mark Epstein’s The Loyal Son is a riveting narrative about the bizarre turmoil between Benjamin Franklin and his son William. The amount of new research undertaken is deeply impressive. And the writing is elegant and always informative. Highly recommended!”Read More