Reluctantly: Autobiographical Essays

Despite being among the most erudite poets of this century, Hayden Carruth has lived his life largely outside academia. This collection of stunning autobiographical essays chronicles a lifetime of wrestling with demons and muses, chronic depression, a suicide attempt, a passionate love of jazz and blues, and unflinching honesty.

Despite being among the most erudite poets of his time, Carruth has lived his life largely outside academia, mastering his craft writing in a cow shed beside a woodstove. His autobiographical essays chronicle a lifetime of wrestling with demons and muses, time spent hospitalized for severe chronic depression, his love of jazz and blues, a suicide attempt, and most of all an uncommon, unflinching devotion to honesty.