How to read - and how to teach poetry? The present volume on 'Modern American Poetry' assembles ten essays that distill and share tips, facts, arguments, interpretations, and techniques that a number of German and American scholars believe to be helpful when reading and teaching American poetry. The essays introduce topics such as the poetry of war and postmodern poetic experimentation, dwell on teaching Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Frank O'Hara, and relate the experiences of translating texts by the African American poet June Jordan in the classroom. Imagism and confessionalism are re-negotiated while more recent developments, such as slam poetics and South Asian diasporic verse are introduced. All essays share a single goal: to provide 'Points of Access' for interested readers and especially instructors to transform an exciting, chaotic, contested field of study into lessons that are enlightening and, ideally, enjoyable.