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Beautifully surreal poems of Hollywood, pet dinosaurs, and men made of razors. Born of Midwest sensibilities and baked in the Los Angeles sun, Miles of Hallelujah is from acclaimed poet Rob Sturma, who under the nom de plume Ratpack Slim, navigated around the glum and sass of Hollywood, managing to find a strange romance inside its pounding rhythm. Rob "Ratpack Slim" Sturma's poetry is a journey through the mind of one of the last hopeless romantics; it is cradled in the language of pop music and fantasy, always rounding the bend back to the poet's sense of longing. The language dances between the conceit of the literary and the how-ya-doin' nostalgia. With a foreword by acclaimed poet "Mighty" Mike McGee, this collection is made for people who didn't think they liked poetry and for modern poetry enthusiasts alike.
We Will be Shelter, edited by poet and activist Andrea Gibson, is an anthology of contemporary poems that addresses issues of social justice. Unique to this anthology is its focus on creating positive social change through gorgeous, gusty poetry. Alongside and embedded in featured poems are concrete ways to address social and political issues raised. The goal of We Will be Shelter is to raise awareness, encourage critical self-reflection, and call readers to action.
Brown is our modern-day Neruda, hailed as the king of the fast gut punch and champion of the unforgettable line. Here is a brilliant imagination working at its highest level of creative force and naked, cinematic intimacy. Winner of the 2013 Texas Book of The Year for Poetry and owner of Write Bloody Publishing, Derrick C. Brown, author of UH-OH (“...a rekindling of faith in the weird, hilarious, shocking, beautiful power of words.” Joel Lovell, The New York Times) and Born in The Year of the Butterfly Knife, elevates his newest collection of writing in Hello. It Doesn’t Matter. with short burst of dazzling light, dark humor and longer bouts of sorrow and rise. This road-traveling bard fearlessly delivers on laughter and unashamed romance.
Caitlin Scarano's debut poetry collection, Do Not Bring Him Water, begins, 'as a child you don't ask yourself why you're hiding, / you just hide.' These poems bear witness to domestic trauma and the many forms it can take. In this collection, women escape knots of fishing wire, secret rooms behind radiator grates, hammers to the skull, vegetable gardens, howling houses, chains and chairs. Scarano orchestrates a strange, lyrical world where the lines between human/animal, male/female, past/future, guilt/innocence, and waking/dreaming blur with both visceral pleasure and danger. We are led through this world by a speaker who is attempting to both acknowledge and disrupt a history of violence and silence. Yes, perhaps 'no one is made / for anyone,' but love can still engender from loss.
Hieu Nguyen's bruising collection of poems, This Way to the Sugar, puts a blade and a microscope to nostalgia, tradition, race, apology, and sexuality, in order to find beauty in a flawed world. His work has been described as "an astounding testament to the power and necessity of confession." This powerful book asks whether it might be better "to leave the blade inside the body," whether "forgiveness will bleed you thin."
Top selling poet Sarah Kay releases her debut collection of work from the first decade of her career. Following the success of her breakout poem, "B," No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new and beloved work that showcases Kay's skill for celebrating family, love, travel, history, and unlikely love affairs between inanimate objects ("Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire"). Both fresh and wise, Kay's poetry allows readers to join in on her journey of discovering herself and the world around her. - 2011 TED speaker (recording has been viewed 3 million times online) - First book, "B" was ranked #1 Bestselling Poetry Book on Amazon - Featured on HBO, American Public Radio, Huffington Post, CNN.com, etc. - Founder and Co-Director of Project VOICE
Look, the future is all telepathy and disappointment and pretending we haven't always been winging it. Every day we're the strongest we'll ever be. What doesn't kill you hasn't killed you yet. From Greek mythology to Top 40, Pavlov to Sartre, the space station to the zoo, "Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone" collides dark humor and unexpected sweetness.
In The Year of No Mistakes, Aptowicz goes cross country and tackles themes like love, lust, heartache and ambition in poems set in cities across the United States. While the backbone of the book is the slow break-up of her decade-long relationship, the heart remains Aptowicz falling in love with Americana. Sharply observant and unflinchingly truthful, her poems may be funny or heartbreaking, spare or lush, bright or dark, but they are always honest and engaging working class poems. Written during the fellowship year of her National Endowment for the Arts grant, poems from this collection have already been published in over four dozen literary journals and have been performed in venues across the country.
In Janae Johnson's debut poetry collection, the concept of being tenderheaded is less about Black hair; more how we are taught to disguise pain through suppression of macro and micro traumas. What began as a book of poetry about women's basketball transformed into a coming-of-age story centering Black queer masculinity, emotional restoration and belonging. From lyrically experimental to personified prose, each poem encourages humor to rise after an eight hour hair appointment and the ultimate decision to wear a ponytail.
Miles Walser unearths the concept of the binary in his long-awaited first poetry collection. While Walser's lionhearted deconstruction of gender tackles trans identity in a way no living poet has before, he also dismantles other alleged dichotomies such as loneliness and introversion, softness and rage, mathematics and art. He acknowledges the existence of all these 'opposites' and their place inside the author. Walser bares so much of his many-hued self that the reader can't help but turn inwards. The reader does not simply watch the author bloom in these poems but the open-minded reader is bound to bloom also.