Andrews addresses - from a poet's perspective on how to understand and make use of contemporary practice - poetics and its role as a choreographer of discussions and theorizing about meaning. By focusing on the ways in which meaning is produced and challenged in contemporary literary work, Andrews grounds his work in cross-disciplinary theory. He analyzes poetics and the production of meaning; alternative traditions and canons and stylistic resources as a signpost for writing; and innovative contemporary poetry and its break with many of the premises and constraints of even the most forward-looking modernisms. The book combines a parallel sequence of interviews and symposia responses with shorter pieces on a variety of postwar English-language poets (from Oppen, Ashbery, and Howe to younger contemporaries). From a foundation in the specifics of current practice that more overarching theory often ignores, Andrews challenges and extends the limitations of traditional literary criticism.