Unbound Edition Press today announced it will publish the fourth collection of poems by acclaimed poet George Witte. The collection, titled An Abundance of Caution, is scheduled for release in Fall 2022. It follows his previous collections, The Apparitioners, Deniability, and Does She Have a Name?
Eight years in the making, An Abundance of Caution contemplates the delicate balances defining life now, from personal doubts to environmental crises and incurable diseases. Witte writes with a clear-eyed courage in confronting such subjects across the collection. Critics have compared him to Robert Frost for his ability to see the seemingly simple pleasantries of life and convey them in a cleverly plainspoken manner. Yet, Witte also shows them to be constantly undercut by darker threats or worries hiding just beneath the surface of things.
“I have spent years with these poems, exploring a tentative spiritual awakening in the midst of doubt; balancing our concurrent extinction events against hope; travelling through a dark underpass toward emergence; and keeping a loved one alive while saying goodbye,” Witte said. “The book’s four sections are discrete, but they all try to sustain a consistent clarity amidst potential fracture or collapse.”
“Witte’s poems are equally illuminating and dark, comforting and unsettling,” said Patrick Davis, publisher at Unbound Edition Press. “We saw immediately the thoughtful complexity of his work and knew it was right for our press.”
In addition to his previous collections, his work has been published widely in journals and included in The Best American Poetry, Old Flame, Rabbit Ears, The Doll Collection, and two Poets of the Palisades anthologies. He received Poetry magazine’s Frederick Bock prize, as well as a fellowship from the New Jersey Council for the Arts/Department of State. The editor in chief of St. Martin’s Press, Witte lives with his family in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
