ALFRED NICOL
Alfred Nicol is an American poet. He graduated from Dartmouth College, where he received the Academy of American Poets Prize. He now lives in West Newbury, Massachusetts and is a member of the Powow River Poets. He edited the Powow River Anthology, published by Ocean Publishing in 2006, and was the recipient of the 2004 Richard Wilbur Award for his first book of poems, Winter Light, published by The University of Evansville Press. Nicol’s other publications include Animal Psalms (Able Muse, 2016); Elegy for Everyone (Prospero’s World Press, 2009); and Brief Accident of Light: Poems of Newburyport, a collaboration with Rhina P. Espaillat (Kelsay Books, 2019). His poems have appeared in Poetry, The New England Review, Dark Horse, Commonweal, The Formalist, The Hopkins Review, and other literary journals, as well as in Contemporary Poetry of New England and other anthologies.
Nicol’s most recent publication, One Hundred Visions of War, from Wiseblood Books, is a translation from the French of Julien Vocance (1878-1954). These poems, written in 1916 in the trenches of WWI, are among the first haiku written in the west.
Nicol’s poem “Addendum” was included in the 2018 edition of Best American Poetry.
Reviews of One Hundred Visions of War
Praise for One Hundred Visions of War
“In a year when every morning’s coffee is accompanied by news of war’s destruction – in Ukraine, in Ethiopia, probably in yet another place by the time you read this – reading Julien Vocance’s sobering little poems, ably translated in this little book, is almost a moral obligation.”
—from “In the Light of Rocket Flares: Maryann Corbett reviews One Hundred Visions of War, a translation by Alfred Nicol of Cent Visions de Guerre by Julien Vocance” (Wiseblood Books, 2022), in The Friday Poem
“Julien Vocance’s name may have been neglected for decades although a century ago he was one of the first French poets to explore Japanese haiku and use this terse form to record his war experience. Today, the faded name shines again with the translation of One Hundred Visions of War. Its value, as Nicol points out in the introduction, lies “in its witness to the experience of the human being caught up in a battle” (xi). The translation and publication of Vocance’s haiku book are timely and important especially when today’s world seems to stand on the brink of chaos.”
—John Zeng, in Valley Voices, a literary review published by Mississippi Valley State University, Spring 2023
Purchase One Hundred Visions of War
Alfred Nicol is an American poet. He graduated from Dartmouth College, where he received the Academy of American Poets Prize. He now lives in West Newbury, Massachusetts and is a member of the Powow River Poets. He edited the Powow River Anthology, published by Ocean Publishing in 2006, and was the recipient of the 2004 Richard Wilbur Award for his first book of poems, Winter Light, published by The University of Evansville Press. Nicol’s other publications include Animal Psalms (Able Muse, 2016); Elegy for Everyone (Prospero’s World Press, 2009); and Brief Accident of Light: Poems of Newburyport, a collaboration with Rhina P. Espaillat (Kelsay Books, 2019). His poems have appeared in Poetry, The New England Review, Dark Horse, Commonweal, The Formalist, The Hopkins Review, and other literary journals, as well as in Contemporary Poetry of New England and other anthologies.
Nicol’s most recent publication, One Hundred Visions of War, from Wiseblood Books, is a translation from the French of Julien Vocance (1878-1954). These poems, written in 1916 in the trenches of WWI, are among the first haiku written in the west.
Nicol’s poem “Addendum” was included in the 2018 edition of Best American Poetry.
Reviews of One Hundred Visions of War
Praise for One Hundred Visions of War
“In a year when every morning’s coffee is accompanied by news of war’s destruction – in Ukraine, in Ethiopia, probably in yet another place by the time you read this – reading Julien Vocance’s sobering little poems, ably translated in this little book, is almost a moral obligation.”
—from “In the Light of Rocket Flares: Maryann Corbett reviews One Hundred Visions of War, a translation by Alfred Nicol of Cent Visions de Guerre by Julien Vocance” (Wiseblood Books, 2022), in The Friday Poem
“Julien Vocance’s name may have been neglected for decades although a century ago he was one of the first French poets to explore Japanese haiku and use this terse form to record his war experience. Today, the faded name shines again with the translation of One Hundred Visions of War. Its value, as Nicol points out in the introduction, lies “in its witness to the experience of the human being caught up in a battle” (xi). The translation and publication of Vocance’s haiku book are timely and important especially when today’s world seems to stand on the brink of chaos.”
—John Zeng, in Valley Voices, a literary review published by Mississippi Valley State University, Spring 2023
Purchase One Hundred Visions of War
