Comments on: Herrera and Kleinzahler Share 2008 NBCC Poetry Prize

By: michael robbins

michael robbins — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:39:22 +0000

“Unless they’re stressed” makes sense to me — thus “Sleeping It Off” would work. But no one said “of” should be capitalized! Thank you for putting up with my solecism tic.
I actually think “Half the World Is Light” is a better title, whoever invented it. Meanwhile, maybe Harrieteers could advise me: is Herrera’s book all that? I saw Burt’s review in the Times, but I haven’t checked it out yet.
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By: Cathy Halley

Cathy Halley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:02:02 +0000

Before anyone else notices, I got the title of Herrera’s book wrong. I called it “Half the World is Light,” when clearly it is “Half of the World In Light.” That’s what I get for using the Washington Post blog instead of Amazon to fact check…
The Chicago Manual of Style tells me I should use lowercase for prepositions unless they’re stressed. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t stress the “of” in Herrera’s title–neither do the good folks at NBCC who left the entire word out of the title on their site!
So, I’m sticking with “Half of the World in Light.”
As for the Kleinzahler–I guess I’ll go with “Sleeping It Off in Rapid City,” though I sure hate the way it looks.
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By: michael robbins

michael robbins — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:59:15 +0000

Just to keep up my reputation as a pedant, in Kleinzahler’s title, “It” should be capitalized, “off” lowercased, while in Herrera’s “Is” should be capped. Doesn’t matter how small a word is, if it’s a pronoun or a verb, it should be capitalized. This is some sort of OCD problem I have, I know.
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By: Francisco Aragón

Francisco Aragón — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:12:18 +0000

Thank you for these great links, Cathy.
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