Since its founding in 1969 by William Packard, The New York Quarterly has been devoted to excellence in the publication of a unique and fervent cross-section of contemporary American poetry regardless of school of thought, style, or genre. Our only concern is to focus on the craft that underlies effective poetry writing. The New York Quarterly features works by both known and emerging poets. The NYQ Craft Interviews present the views of some of our most outstanding poets on the general subjects of style, prosody and technique. The issues are rounded out with an essay or two on the subject of contemporary American poetry that is both accessible and meaningful to readers, poets, students, and teachers of poetry alike. NYQ 55 features a craft interview with Michael McClure; an editorial on poetry and vision; an essay, "Shrink-Rapt Poetry?" by Dean Blehert; and poetry by Charles Bukowski, Paul Trachtenberg, Robert Peters, Gerald Nicosia, James Broughton, Andrew Glaze, Lyn Lifshin, Stephen Stepanchev, Antler, Anna Adams, Franz Douskey, Patricia Farewell, William Packard, Tom Rockwell, Carolyn Slapikas, T. Kilgore Splake, Amy Fusselman, Sanford Fraser, Herb Kitson, Gina Bergamino, Elizabeth Montalbano, Timothy Monaghan, Joshua McKinney, Stephanie Hager, Stephen Ajay, Jill Barnes, Bill Buege, Christopher Brown, Bill Shields, Dean Blehert, Patricia Covey, Stephanie Dickinson, Emanuel Di Pasquale, Lisa Verigin, Charles Webb, Anne Marie Dunatov, and Paul Agostino.