Enormous Morning

A Pulitzer Prize–winning poet examines the lives and sacrifices of his foremothers in his most personal collection yet.

Philip Schultz is famous for his empathetic explorations of male shortcomings, primarily those of his late father. Enormous Morning, his incisive new volume, reflects on the sacrifices of women in their roles as mothers, wives, and friends, including those of his own mother, who was forced to support the family in the face of his father’s financial ruin. The collection ends with a long poem, “Something and Nothing,” that pays homage to the Arshile Gorky painting The Artist and His Mother.

But the poems are also political in scope. Schultz weaves these personal stories into the broader tapestry of our political moment, reflecting on the fragility of democracy, including the January 6 insurrection, and those who are willing to sacrifice themselves to preserve it. Intimate, vulnerable, and inviting, Enormous Morning cements Schultz as our greatest chronicler of compassion.