“Anyone adding a book on Picasso to the thousands we have owes his readers an explanation,” begins T. J. Clark in this exquisite monograph, as he presents a pictorial argument that re-evaluates autobiographical evidence in Picasso’s art in view of its “retrogressive nature in Cubism’s wake.” Based on the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts that Clark delivered at the National Gallery of Art, Washington in 2009, this Nietzschean study of Picasso includes an excellent choice of paintings and relevant iconography. Strongly recommended.

Why do painters sometimes wish they were poets — and why do poets sometimes wish they were painters? — this is one of the inquiries for literary/art critic, Leonard Barkan, in a provocative study of the connections between the visual and the word. Barkan draws from classical sources (paintings, drawings, maps and sculpture) to meditate creatively on possibilities beyond ekphrasis and theories of seeing and of art.

To consider melancholy in art beyond the limits of despondency, loss, and grief is a refreshing way to induce a different space and energy between the past of the artwork and the viewer’s present. In these erudite essays, art historian Michael Ann Holly makes case for works of art — “these beautiful orphans” — that reinvest in melancholia as the signifier and the signified.

Handsomely produced by The Twisted Spoon from Prague, this intriguing collection of ballads and folktales by Czech writer Karel J. Erben (1811-70) was first published in 1853. It brings alive a folkloric world where sacred trees and the Prophetess walk with lakes and children. The full-color artwork by artist Alén Diviš (1900-56) is at once harrowing and stunning.

In this new short story collection, Lily Tuck depicts the intimate lives of her heroines who are often described by critics as “Didionesque”: a painter who discovers her deceased husband’s secret, an American divorcée who visits her school friend Nina in St. Guilhem-le-Désert, a French family who flees to Lima during the war…. A skilful work of fiction that intertwines autobiographical experience with sublime turns of imagination. Tuck’s most recent novel is I Married You for Happiness (2011).

British writer, translator and editor David Constantine’s short stories is my new discovery. With memorable characters who reconnect with themselves through sympathy and passion for life, these stories are brilliantly structured via a riveting complexity of time spaces in narratives. Other recommended titles: Under the Dam (2005) and The Shieling (2009) from Comma Press.

Vãrua Tupu is remarkably the first anthology of its kind, making available to the English-speaking world voices, writings and art of the French Polynesian community, stretching our imagination and understanding beyond exoticism and common notions of “nativism.”

Bilingual anthology of innovative poetry and essays, “dedicated to women working in modern and cross cultural poetry milieus.” “There’s no such thing as your “own” language… It is all a matter of giving yourself over to the process of other people’s words as they come and go freely within you and placing your own self atop the words of someone else,” writes Kyong-Mi Park in her insightful essay on language, “My Asian Bones are Ringing.” A striking and lively sampling of contemporary work from Japan.

In breathtaking free verse, Jessica Greenbaum’s poetry is packed with descriptive moments of humor, music, imagery and imagination. Entering her narrative-driven world feels like an exhilarating roller coaster ride or a kaleidoscope of surprises. Read Greenbaum’s poems in our Issue 4.

An illuminating collection of twenty-five essays by seven contemporary poets. “The lyric genre is the rootstock from which so many subsequent hybrids emerge,” write editors David Baker and Ann Townsend in the introduction. The book focuses on three lyric modes (the elegy, the love poem, and the ode); and four lyric “means” (“the problem of” nature, beauty, people, and time). Highly readable and engaging, with meticulous discussions on examples throughout the lyric’s history.

In Time brings together a sampling of writings by American poet C.K. Williams, including essays, commentaries and interview excerpts on the poetics of George Herbert, Philip Larkin, Yehuda Amichai, Wordsworth, and other important figures. Reflecting on his work as a translator, Williams also writes about the accountability of autobiography. “The Rest” includes meditations on aging, Paris as a place of continual inspiration for artists, the German culture and national guilt, to name a few. A book of beautiful prose, quiet tenacity, intellectual depth and moral rigor.

Concise yet well-researched, this title draws readers in by its illustrations and accessible style. A useful guide for visitors interested in the architectural history and features, as well as the exquisite pavilions, lakes and scenic spots of Chinese classical gardens in Suzhou.

In these elegant essays first published as magazine articles, journalist Paula Deitz offers informative and personal glimpses into what we may mistake as “domesticated spaces of beauty or nature.” Favorites include “Parks and Public Spaces,” and writings on the French gardens: the Garden of Versailles and the Tuileries.