For four decades, New Directions in Prose and Poetry has been at the very core of the ND list. Each volume, in essence a literary magazine in book form and international in character, has presented year after year the work of writers who have sought to extend the recognized frontiers of form and content. The twenty-ninth number in the series, which is now published semiannually, opens with Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s calligraphic “Pablo," an elegy in Spanish for the late Pablo Neruda. David Antin contributes his trail-breaking “is this the right place?"––the typescript of an improvised “talk-poem’ presented in facsimile. Other poets include Homer Aridjis (Mexico) , Cid Corman, Denise Levertov, Artur Lundkvist (Sweden), Marichiko (Japan), Michael McClure, Thomas Parkinson, A. Poulin, Jr., Piero Sanavio (Italy), Tennessee Williams, and Al Young. Works-in-progress are represented by excerpts from novels by the British author Martin Bax (“The Crucifixion Disease,” from The Hospital Ship), Coleman Dowel! (“First Person Biography,” from Island People), and Toby Olson (“Corridors,” from The Life of Jesus). Finally, new short fiction is offered by Walter Abish, Warren Jay Hecht, Yumiko Kitrahashi (Japan), and James Purdy.