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Kaveh Akbar’s exquisite, highly anticipated follow-up to Calling a Wolf a Wolf.
With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar’s second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict?
And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body’s question, “what now shall I repair?” Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance―the infinite void of a loved one’s absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation―teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness.
Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell’s linguistic rigor is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives―resonant, revelatory, and holy.
Kaveh Akbar founded and edits Divedapper, where he interviews major voices in contemporary poetry. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Tin House, APR, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry Press, January 2017) and full-length collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, September 2017). Akbar has received a Pushcart and a Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 2016, Akbar was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and is currently a professor in the MFA program at Purdue University and in the low-residency program at Randolph College.
(. . .)
Corporeal friends are
spiritual enemies, said
Blake, probably gardening
in the nude. Today I’m trying
to scowl more, mismatch
my lingerie. Nobody
seems bothered enough.
(. . .)
Pilgrim Bell
Poems
by Kaveh Akbar
Publisher: Graywolf Press
August 3, 2021
Language: English
Paperback
80 pages
ISBN-10 : 1644450593
ISBN-13 : 978-1644450598
$13.70
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The definitive anthology of Jim Morrison‘s writings with rare photographs and numerous handwritten excerpts of unpublished and published poetry and lyrics from his 28 privately held notebooks.
You can also hear Jim Morrison’s final poetry recording, now available for the first time, on the CD or digital audio edition of this book, at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles on his twenty-seventh birthday, December 8, 1970.
The audio book also includes performances by Patti Smith, Oliver Ray, Liz Phair, Tom Robbins, and others reading Morrison’s work.
Created in collaboration with Jim Morrison’s estate and inspired by a posthumously discovered list entitled “Plan for Book,”
The Collected Works of Jim Morrison is an almost 600-page anthology of the writings of the late poet and iconic Doors’ front man. This landmark publication is the definitive opus of Morrison’s creative output—and the book he intended to publish. Throughout, a compelling mix of 160 visual components accompanies the text, which includes numerous excerpts from his 28 privately held notebooks—all written in his own hand and published here for the first time—as well as an array of personal images and commentary on the work by Morrison himself.
This oversized, beautifully produced collectible volume contains a wealth of new material—poetry, writings, lyrics, and audio transcripts of Morrison reading his work.
Not only the most comprehensive book of Morrison’s work ever published, it is immersive, giving readers insight to the creative process of and offering access to the musings and observations of an artist whom the poet Michael McClure called “one of the finest, clearest spirits of our times.”
This remarkable collector’s item includes:
• Foreword by Tom Robbins; introduction and notes by editor Frank Lisciandro that provide insight to the work; prologue by Anne Morrison Chewning
• Published and unpublished work and a vast selection of notebook writings
• The transcript, the only photographs in existence, and production notes of Morrison’s last poetry recording on his twenty-seventh birthday
• The Paris notebook, possibly Morrison’s final journal, reproduced at full reading size
• Excerpts from notebooks kept during his 1970 Miami trial
• The shooting script and gorgeous color stills from the never-released film HWY
• Complete published a I Look Back”: a compelling autobiography in poem form
• Family photographs as well as images of Morrison during his years as a performer
James Douglas Morrison
(1943-1971) was a poet, filmmaker, screenwriter, and the lead singer of as well as the lyricist and a composer for The Doors. Prior to his death, Morrison self-published three limited-edition volumes of his poetry: The Lords/Notes on Vision (1969), The New Creatures (1969), and An American Prayer (1970). Simon & Schuster published the combined The Lords and the New Creatures in 1970. Posthumous editions of Morrison’s writings include Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, Volume I (1988) and The American Night: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, Volume II (1990).
The Collected Works of Jim Morrison
Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics
By Jim Morrison, Foreword by Tom Robbins
On Sale: June 8, 2021
Publisher: Harper Design
Language: English
Hardcover: 584 pages
ISBN-10 : 0063028972
ISBN-13 : 978-0063028975
Item Weight: 4.44 pounds
Dimensions: 7.7 x 2 x 10.6 inches
$39.99
The Collected Works of Jim Morrison
CD: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics
Audio CD – Unabridged.
Performed by Jim Morrison, Patti Smith, Liz Phair, Oliver Ray, Tom Robbins, Frank Lisciandro, Anne Morrison Chewning, Sefton Graham, and Ian Morrison.
Includes Jim Morrison’s final poetry recording, now available for the first time, at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles on his 27th birthday, December 8, 1970.
Audio CD
$23.99
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Lana Del Rey follows in the same musician/poet footsteps as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Jewel and Lou Reed.
Lana’s music and lyrics evoke images of a saturated Kodachrome photograph, so it would stand to reason that she’d now add “poet” to her artist’s kit. Even without music, her words work their way around you, pulling you into a world that’s not unlike a David Lynch movie.
The New York Times bestselling debut book of poetry from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass.
“Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.” —Lana Del Rey
Lana’s breathtaking first book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her times” (The Atlantic). The collection features more than thirty poems, many exclusive to the book: Never to Heaven, The Land of 1,000 Fires, Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving, LA Who Am I to Love You?, Tessa DiPietro, Happy, Paradise Is Very Fragile, Bare Feet on Linoleum, and many more. This beautiful hardcover edition showcases Lana’s typewritten manuscript pages alongside her original photography. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator.
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is also brought to life in an unprecedented spoken word audiobook which features Lana Del Rey reading fourteen select poems from the book accompanied by music from Grammy Award–winning musician Jack Antonoff.
Lana Del Rey is an American singer, songwriter, artist, and poet. Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is her first book.
Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass
by Lana Del Rey
Poetry
English language
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 09/29/2020
ISBN-13: 9781982167288
Pages: 128
Hardcover
$24.99
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Een nieuwe ster aan het poëtisch firmament
Leeft een lichaam nog als het alleen maar naar een beeldscherm staart? Wat glinstert er tussen de ruïnes van de eenentwintigste eeuw? Dat onderzoekt Maxime Garcia Diaz in deze spetterende debuutbundel.
Haar associatieve gedichten kronkelen, bedwelmen, ontregelen, en wortelen diep in het digitale, het feminiene en het hedendaagse. Flarden van nieuwsberichten vermengen zich met academische theorie en uitgestorven webpagina’s uit de jaren nul. In haar poëzie worden grenzen poreus – tussen lichamen, talen, stemmen – en is alles onzuiver. Het is warm in de hivemind is als een analoog internet, een papieren web, een bloederige rotzooi van popcultuur, ondode URL’s en meisjeslichamen. Een bruisend poëtisch debuut waarin de taal welig tiert, over fantasie, gekte, woede, angst, en een spookachtige revolutie. Deze meerstemmige, meertalige maelstrom lijkt nog het meest op het internet zelf: grillig, gevaarlijk en vol van een duistere en vreugdevolle overvloed.
live through this w/ me
(. . .)
voor nu heb ik geen honger meer
ik heb de hele middag in een bushokje
gezeten (neorexisch koninkrijk)
met euroshopper & amnesia haze
en een amerikaanse tiener
opgekruld in een hoekje als een
suburban spook, zielige zieke ideeën
& een meisje (girl of the geist)
that promised to live through this
with me
(. . .)
Maxime Garcia Diaz (1993) studeerde Cultural Analysis aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 2019 won ze het NK Poetry Slam. Haar werk is eerder gepubliceerd door De Internet Gids, Samplekanon, Yes The Void, Deus Ex Machina en De Optimist. In 2020 kwam haar chapbook Artificielle uit bij het label Marktcorruptie en werkte ze met andere jonge schrijvers aan de voorstelling Poetic Resistance. Garcia Diaz is Nederlands en Uruguayaans en woont in Amsterdam.
Het is warm in de hivemind
Maxime Garcia Diaz
Gedichten
ISBN: 9789403120614
NUR: 306
Type: Paperback
Aantal pagina’s: 112
Uitgever: De Bezige Bij
Verschijningsdatum: 15-07-2021
Prijs: 22,99 euro
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A highly anticipated collection of new poems from the award-winning writer Ocean Vuong: Time Is a Mother.
How else do we return to ourselves but to fold
The page so it points to the good part
In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Shifting through memory, and in concert with the themes of his novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong’s poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break.
The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once.
Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds and the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, he is also the winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Time Is a Mother
By Ocean Vuong
Poetry
Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780593300237
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 04/05/2022
Pages: 128
$24.00
This item will be available on April 5, 2022
Available for Pre-Order.
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In this follow-up to her acclaimed debut The Met Office Advises Caution, Rebecca Watts observes and tests the limits of humanity’s engagement with the non-human.
By turns lyrical and narrative, the poems examine familiar subjects – environmental crisis, hawks, hospitals, the sea, barbecues, flowers, Emily Dickinson – only to find their subjects staring, sometimes fighting, back.
Nature and nurture, equally red in tooth and claw, power a book-long sparring match between the overthinking poet and the ever-thoughtless universe, between the craft’s isolation and the world’s irrepressible variety.
Gloves on and gloves off, the poet’s hands destroy and build, gather and scatter, caress and strike.
Red Gloves
The women are carrying the coffin. Under the fear
of slippage they make slow steps.
We cannot say that they advance.
More than one woman is weathering – from the cool
top of her head to her strained fingers to her toes
pushed together in interview shoes – the urge,
like a rip tide, to run backwards and away.
Today is not a normal day.
( . . . )
Rebecca Watts was born in Suffolk in 1983 and currently lives in Cambridge. Her debut poetry collection, The Met Office Advises Caution, was published by Carcanet in 2016. She is also the editor of Elizabeth Jennings: New Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2019).
Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd.
Language: English
Paperback
72 pages
ISBN-10 : 178410955X
ISBN-13 : 978-1784109554
2020
£9.89
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A dark, no-holds-barred, and often hilarious collection from a prize-winning poet, veering between the poles of self and world.
Kim Addonizio’s sharp and irreverent eighth volume, Now We’re Getting Somewhere, is an essential companion to your practice of the Finnish art of kalsarikännit―drinking at home, alone in your underwear, with no intention of going out. Imbued with the poet’s characteristic precision and passion, the collection charts a hazardous course through heartache, climate change, dental work, Outlander, semiotics, and more.
Combatting existential gloom with a wicked, seductive energy, Addonizio investigates desire, loss, and the madness of contemporary life. She calls out to Walt Whitman and John Keats, echoes Dorothy Parker, and finds sisterhood with Virginia Woolf.
Sometimes confessional, sometimes philosophical, these poems weave from desolation to drollery and clamor with raucous imagery: an insect in high heels, a wolf at an uncomfortable party, a glowing and self-serious guitar.
Kim Addonizio is a fiction writer, poet, and teacher. Her poetry collections include Tell Me, a finalist for the National Book Award, What Is This Thing Called Love, and Lucifer at the Starlite. She lives in Oakland, California.
Kim Addonizio
Now We’re Getting Somewhere
Poems
2021
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 16, 2021)
Language: English
Hardcover: 96 pages
ISBN-10: 0393540898
ISBN-13 : 978-0393540895
New poetry
Kim Addonizio
Now We’re Getting Somewhere
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Sérgio Monteiro de Almeida
Poema visual: Pair of vases #1
Sérgio Monteiro de Almeida, Curitiba, Brazil (1964).
Intermedia visual poet and conceptual artist
Sérgio Monteiro de Almeida cv:
Curitiba, Brazil (1964). Intermedia visual poet and conceptual artist. – He has published in numerous anthologies and specialized magazines in Brazil and outside; participated in exhibitions of visual poetry as International Biennial of Visual and Alternative Poetry in Mexico (editions from 1987 to 2010); Post-Art International Exhibition of Visual / Experimental Poetry, San Diego State University-USA (1988); 51 and 53 Venice Biennial (2005 and 2009). – He published in 2007 the book Sérgio Monteiro de Almeida with a global vision about his work as a visual artist and poet. – This book was incorporated into the “Artist Books” collection of the New York City Library (USA). – Author of the CD of kinetic visual poems (EU) NI/IN VERSO (still unpublished). – He presented urban interventions in Curitiba, San Diego, Seattle, New York, Paris, Rome. – In 2014 and 2015 visual poems published in the Rampike experimental literature magazine of the University of Windsor, Canada. – He recently had his poems published in Jornal Candido (n. 64) and Relevo (2015 and 2016), and in 2017 in: fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature (www.fleursdumal.nl).
More about his work:
Livro eletrônico http://issuu.com/boek861/docs/sergio_monteiro_libro;
Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural de artes visuais www.itaucultural.com.br;
Videos no Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SergioMAlmeida
Sérgio Monteiro de Almeida
Curitiba – PR – Brazil
email: sergio.ma@ufpr.br
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Het moment dat een kind opeens weet: ik besta. Weinigen weten de taal te vinden om die ervaring op te schrijven; Tjitske Jansen kan dat.
Kraakhelder: ‘Als elfjarige kwam ik op een middag de trap af en wist ik dat ik er was en er niet meer zomaar niet kon zijn. Ik bestond. Daar had ik zelf niet zoveel over te zeggen.’ Zoals uit de titel zowel vervreemding als aanvaarding spreekt, zo is de ‘ik’ even ontredderd als wijs, even verward als begripvol.
Die ‘ik’ is een kind dat zich vragen stelt. Over opgroeien, over haar lichaam, over God, over pleegouders, over de fietsenmaker, over zekerheden van anderen, over de tijd. ‘Ik was bijna tien. Dat was snel gegaan. Ik was dus eigenlijk al bijna twintig, dertig, veertig, vijftig, zestig, zeventig, tachtig.’ Zo dreigend kan het besef van de eindigheid zijn. Zo onontkoombaar kun je dat opschrijven.
Tjitske Jansen (1971) combineert in wat ze schrijft als vanzelf poëzie, proza en theater. Al vanaf haar vroegste bundels, de bestsellers Het moest maar eens gaan sneeuwen en Koerikoeloem, treedt ze veel op en geeft ze met grote inzet les over schrijven, poëzie en performance aan middelbare scholieren. Haar werk werd genomineerd voor De Bronzen Uil en bekroond met de Anna Bijns Prijs
Tjitske Jansen
Iedereen moet ergens zijn
Hardcover
ISBN: 9789021425825
09-03-2021
Prijs: € 18,99
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De Academie De Gouden Ganzenveer kent de Gouden Ganzenveer 2021 toe aan literatuurcriticus en auteur Margot Dijkgraaf. Jet Bussemaker maakte de laureaat bekend in het programma De Taalstaat op NPO Radio 1.
De Academie De Gouden Ganzenveer eert Margot Dijkgraaf vanwege haar grote rol als een sensibele en erudiete ‘ambassadeur van de letteren’, die verankerd is in Nederland, maar haar blik naar buiten richt. Zij brengt Nederlandstalige auteurs in Frankrijk en in andere Europese landen onder de aandacht en Franstalige – en daarmee ook Arabische en Afrikaanse – literatuur in Nederland. Met haar niet aflatende enthousiasme en ijver voor het ontsluiten van Europese literatuur – bijvoorbeeld blijkend uit haar initiatief voor de Europese Literatuurprijs – maakt ze belangrijke, maar minder bekende auteurs uit andere dan het Angelsaksische taalgebied toegankelijk voor een breed publiek.
De prijsuitreiking vindt plaats op maandag 20 september a.s. in Amsterdam. Een weerslag van deze bijeenkomst wordt vastgelegd in een speciale uitgave, die aan het eind van het jaar zal verschijnen. De Academie, een initiatief van het bestuur van stichting De Gouden Ganzenveer, kent jaarlijks deze culturele prijs toe. De leden zijn afkomstig uit de wereld van cultuur, wetenschap, politiek en het bedrijfsleven. Met deze onderscheiding wil de Academie het geschreven en gedrukte woord in het Nederlands taalgebied onder de aandacht brengen.
Voorgaande laureaten zijn Abdelkader Benali, Ian Buruma, Antjie Krog, Arnon Grunberg, Xandra Schutte, Geert Mak, David Van Reybrouck, Ramsey Nasr, Annejet van der Zijl, Remco Campert, Joke van Leeuwen, Adriaan van Dis, Joost Zwagerman, Tom Lanoye, Peter van Straaten, Maria Goos, Kees van Kooten, Jan Blokker en Michaël Zeeman.
Margot Dijkgraaf (1960) is literatuurcriticus, schrijver, interviewer en curator en schrijft al zo’n dertig jaar over literatuur, voornamelijk voor NRC. Ze publiceerde boeken over Franse en Europese letteren, over Hella S. Haasse en Cees Nooteboom. Haar recentste boek is Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen (met fotograaf Bart Koetsier, Boom, 2020). Met een scala aan partners in de internationale boekenwereld organiseert ze in binnen- en buitenland literaire activiteiten. Recent was ze intendant van de campagne Les Phares du Nord van het Nederlands Letterenfonds en de Nederlandse ambassade in Parijs, waarbij Nederlandstalige literatuur eregast was op grote Franse festivals. Binnenkort staat die centraal op het festival Le livre sur les quais in Morges, Zwitserland. Dijkgraaf is de initiatiefnemer van de Europese Literatuurprijs en co-organiseert jaarlijks de European Literature Night en de State of the European Literature, in samenwerking met EUNIC en de UvA/geesteswetenschappen. Ze was onder andere directeur van het Centre Français du livre bij Maison Descartes, van Academisch-cultureel Centrum SPUI25 en vervult advies-, jury- en bestuursfuncties in het culturele veld. Momenteel werkt ze aan een boek dat de voorlopige titel heeft In de voetsporen van mijn grootvader (Atlas Contact).
De Gouden Ganzenveer
De prijs wordt – zo mogelijk jaarlijks – toegekend aan een persoon of instituut vanwege zijn of haar grote betekenis voor het geschreven en gedrukte woord in de Nederlandse taal. Het bestuur van de stichting heeft de selectie van de kandidaten en de besluitvorming over de laureaat in handen gegeven van Academie De Gouden Ganzenveer. De Academieleden zijn afkomstig uit de wereld van cultuur, politiek, wetenschap en bedrijfsleven.
Ieder van hen heeft blijkt gegeven van betrokkenheid bij de Nederlandstalige cultuur; zij zijn op persoonlijke titel gevraagd. Eenmaal per jaar komen de leden bijeen om een besluit te nemen over de nieuwe laureaat. Deze besloten Academievergadering wordt gehouden in Museum Meermanno | Huis van het Boek, te ’s-Gravenhage. De toekenning wordt in januari via de media bekendgemaakt waarna in april de feestelijke uitreiking van de Gouden Ganzenveer in Amsterdam volgt. De prijs bestaat uit een ganzenveer van goud en een jaar buitengewoon lidmaatschap van de Academie. In de loop van het jaar verschijnt een speciale uitgave die de verdiensten van de laureaat boekstaaft.
In 1955, bij het vijfenzeventigjarig bestaan van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Uitgeversbond, werd de Gouden Ganzenveer voor het eerst toegekend. De eerste laureaat was de Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Met de prijs willen uitgevers – zo mogelijk jaarlijks – een persoon of instituut lauweren vanwege zijn of haar grote betekenis voor het geschreven en gedrukte woord in de Nederlandse taal. In totaal is de prijs 34 keer uitgereikt. In 2000, na het samengaan van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Uitgeversbond, de Nederlandse Organisatie van Tijdschrift-Uitgevers en de Vereniging De Nederlandse Dagbladpers in het nieuwe Nederlandse Uitgeversverbond (NUV), werd de culturele prijs ondergebracht in een aparte stichting.
Op maandag 20 september a.s. ontvangt Margot Dijkgraaf de Gouden Ganzenveer 2021.
Uitgebreide informatie is te vinden op www.goudenganzenveer.nl
Foto: ©Cyril Marcilhacy
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yesterday i was the moon centers around themes of love and emotional loss, the catharsis of creating art, and the struggle to find one’s voice. Noor’s poetry ranges from succinct universal truths to flowery prose exploring her heritage, what it means to find a physical and emotional home, and the intimate and painful dance of self-discovery. Her poetry and art has already inspired thousands of fans on Instagram to engage with her words through visual journal entries and posts of their own, and her fan base only continues to grow.
Noor Unnahar is a young female voice with power and depth. The Pakistani poet’s moving, personal work collects and makes sense of the phases of collapsing and rebuilding one’s self on the treacherous modern path from teenager to adult. Tinged with the heartbreak of a broken home and the complexity of a rich cultural background, yesterday i was the moon stands out from the Insta-poetry crowd as a collection worth keeping.
“yesterday — i was the moon
today — just an eclipse
something in me travels; some days it’s to the dark
some days it’s to the light”
yesterday i was the moon
by Noor Unnahar
Category: Poetry
Paperback
$14.99
Publisher : Clarkson Potter (2018)
Language : English
160 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780525576013
ISBN-13 : 978-0525576013
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This National Book Award-winning debut poetry collection is a “powerfully evocative” (The New York Review of Books) meditation on the black female figure through time.
Robin Coste Lewis’s electrifying collection is a triptych that begins and ends with lyric poems meditating on the roles desire and race play in the construction of the self.
In the center of the collection is the title poem, “Voyage of the Sable Venus,” an amazing narrative made up entirely of titles of artworks from ancient times to the present—titles that feature or in some way comment on the black female figure in Western art. Bracketed by Lewis’s own autobiographical poems, “Voyage” is a tender and shocking meditation on the fragmentary mysteries of stereotype, juxtaposing our names for things with what we actually see and know.
A new understanding of biography and the self, this collection questions just where, historically, do ideas about the black female figure truly begin—five hundred years ago, five thousand, or even longer? And what role did art play in this ancient, often heinous story? Here we meet a poet who adores her culture and the beauty to be found within it. Yet she is also a cultural critic alert to the nuances of race and desire—how they define us all, including her own sometimes painful history.
Lewis’s book is a thrilling aesthetic anthem to the complexity of race—a full embrace of its pleasure and horror, in equal parts.
” To keep you happy, I decorated the bars.
Because you had never been hungry, I knew
I could tell you the black side
of my family owned slaves.
I realize this is perhaps
the one reason why I love you,
( . . . . . ) “
Robin Coste Lewis is the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus (2015), a finalist for the National Book Award. Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The Massachusetts Review, Callaloo, The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, Transition, and VIDA.
Lewis earned her BA from Hampshire College, her MFA from NYU’s Creative Writing Program, and an MTS degree in Sanskrit and comparative religious literature from Harvard Divinity School. A Cave Canem fellow, a Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities fellow, Lewis was also awarded a Provost’s fellowship in the Creative Writing & Literature PhD Program at USC. Other fellowships and awards include the Caldera Foundation, the Ragdale Foundation, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Summer Literary Seminars in Kenya. She was a finalist for the International War Poetry Prize, the National Rita Dove Prize, and semi-finalist for the “Discovery”/Boston Review Prize and the Crab Orchard Series Open Poetry Prize.
Lewis has taught at Wheaton College, Hunter College, Hampshire College and the NYU Low-Residency MFA in Paris. Born in Compton, California, her family is from New Orleans.
Voyage of the Sable Venus
and Other Poems
by Robin Coste Lewis
Category: Poetry
Paperback
$19.95
2017
ISBN 9781101911204
Publisher : Knopf (1st edition 2015)
Language : English
160 pages
ISBN-10 : 1101875437
ISBN-13 : 978-1101875438
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