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  frank - sonnets

  Diane Seuss

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  WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY 
   
   
   
  WINNER OF THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR POETRY 
   
   
   
  WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/VOELCKER AWARD FOR POETRY COLLECTION 
   
   
   
  WINNER OF THE 2021 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR POETRY 
   
   
   
  A resplendent life in sonnets from the author of Four-Legged Girl, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize 
   
   
   
  "The sonnet, like poverty, teaches you what you can do / without," Diane Seuss writes in this brilliant, candid work, her most personal collection to date. These poems tell the story of a life at risk of spilling over the edge of the page, from Seuss's working-class childhood in rural Michigan to the dangerous allures of New York City and back again. With sheer virtuosity, Seuss moves nimbly across thought and time, poetry and punk, AIDS and addiction, Christ and motherhood, showing us what we can do, what we can do without, and what we offer to one another when we have nothing left to spare. Like a series of cels on a filmstrip, frank: sonnets captures the magnitude of a life lived honestly, a restless search for some kind of "beauty or relief." Seuss is at the height of her powers, devastatingly astute, austere, and—in a word—frank.

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  The Sky is a Sky in the Sky

  Stuart Ross

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  CBC BOOKS' "CANADIAN POETRY COLLECTIONS TO WATCH FOR IN FALL 2024"Imagining a vast blue expanse of what a poem might be 
  The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky is a laboratory of poetic approaches and experiments. It mines the personal and imaginary lives of Stuart Ross and portraits of his grief and internal torment, while paying homage to many of the poet’s literary heroes. It contains new entries in Ross’s ongoing Razovsky poems, prose poems, a remix of an entire poetry book by dear friend Nelson Ball, a couple of collaborative poems, some one-line poems, and lots more. In an era of thematic poetry and conceptual poetry books, this collection is a celebration of possibilities and miscellany. 
   
  "Stuart Ross doesn’t hold back, happily for us. In letting his poems go where they want to go, sometimes by leaps and bounds, he reminds us that poetic rules are meant to be broken and that the results, in the hands of a skillful poet, can be moving, or amusing, or subversive, or exhilarating, or all of the above. His work brims with surprises. From start to finish, The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky is a delightful and thoroughly engaging book." – Charles North, author of News, Poetry and Poplars: Poems/Selected Prose 
  "Here, we’re invited to gawk at horror and kick it in the pants, but also to notice the horror within us, because we all have it, and Ross doesn’t shy away from the odd and uncomfortable. He’s easy with sentiment, honest about grief, clear about death being our final destination, and behooves us mightily to enjoy it while we can. This book contains some of Ross’s greatest love songs for the dead as well as some sideways laments for the living – in these poems we can see ourselves and our friendships, our future losses, and present mysteries examined with no preference or perfunctory reverence. Each time I read Stuart Ross’s work I feel grateful, hopeful, reminded to lift my skeleton up and enjoy the abundant wonders the world holds." – Gillian Wigmore, author of Orient 
  "Stuart Ross is one of the most important poets to have found himself somehow on planet Earth, where readers have been rejoicing in his work for nearly six decades. He makes it seem easy: open your eyes, your ears, your heart; look into the world and write. However, to do so with such unflinching candour, many-layered humour, the deepest emotional intelligence, and rarest lyric acumen? No, you have to be Stuart Ross to bring all of everything to bear upon being alive in one’s time. To rejoice is also to mourn, of course, and these poems are afraid to do neither. Ross trusts poetry more than any of us, so poetry trusts him back: this book dazzles the very sunlight with what it knows, including of the estrangements of the self upon which poetry so often insists, and the fictitiousness of borders between the present and the past, dream and not-dream, hilarity and grief. Whoever you are, including the laws of physics, you will be startled and moved by The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky. At times a momentarily posthumous point of view propels the poems, but do not grieve (or do): the book is immortal." – Lisa Fishman, author of Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition

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  The Chameleon of Choice

  Alison Huckvale

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  The Chameleon of Choice by Alison Huckvale is her second collection of verses and poetry, whereby venturing down a rabbit hole can still be achieved wearing purple Dr Marten boots. Alison detonates gender, race, and ethnicity and puts feeling into fandango as a substitute for distress. Making choices and colour changes, she likens herself to a chameleon, where fear is replaced by impatience and the concept of affection is shut down.
  
  JOHN HEGLEY: "I am gladdened by the colours in both the writing and the images of chameleons and the biscuit tin. It is most reassuring to hear of a vulnerable phoenix."
  
  ROB GEE: "A rewarding symbiosis of poetry and visual art... Amongst other things, this book shows us the wisdom of finding joy in simple pleasures. Some lovely illustrations too."
  
  HELEN MORT: "Alison writes poems from the heart. The Chameleon of Choice is an enlightening, bold, engaging collection."

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  Falling Through the Cracks

  Jason Waddle

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  Depression, illness, pain, and loss can become private homes of isolation. It's tempting to convince ourselves these homes of suffering are proof we suffer alone. Humanity falls through the cracks each time we are failed by a medical system, ignored by policy, and abandoned by those supposed to protect—to love us. May the reader find some commonality within these pages. It can be difficult to find home—know you're not alone. May the reader experience ataraxia.

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  Between the Night and Its Music...

  A. B. Spellman

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  A. B. Spellman is an acclaimed American poet, music critic, and arts administrator. He is widely recognized as a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a cultural and literary movement that emphasized Black identity, pride, and artistic expression. Between the Night and Its Music brings together A. B. Spellman's early work with a collection of powerful new poems. Spellman's literary career took flight in 1965 with his debut poetry collection, The Beautiful Days, which introduced his distinctive voice blending elements of jazz, blues, and African oral traditions. In 1966, Four Lives in the Bebop Business established Spellman as a respected music critic and scholar. It was a groundbreaking work that chronicled the lives and struggles of four influential jazz musicians. Spellman held senior positions at the National Endowment for the Arts for thirty years with lasting impact on arts funding for inner cities and rural and tribal communities. In addition to poems from The Beautiful Days (1965) and Things I Must Have Known (2008), this book contains a trove of new and uncollected poems, confirming Spellman's continued centrality to contemporary American literature. This is an essential volume for readers already familiar with Spellman, and an excellent introduction for new readers. Lauri Scheyer's introduction situates Spellman's work within jazz writing, Black Arts, and American poetry broadly.[sample text]THE TWISTa dancer's worldis walls, movementconfined: musicgod's last breath.rhythm: the last beating of his heart. a dancerfollows that sound, blindto its source, toward wallswith others. she cannot dance aloneshe thinks of thoughtas windows, as ice around the dancecan you break it? move

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  All of Us

  Francesca Martinez

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  'I'm not broken. I'm a unique spark of life. We all are.'
  Jess has a great life: a job she loves, a sharp sense of humour and a close group of friends.
  When austerity threatens the world she has worked hard to build, Jess makes a stand to protect those she holds most dear.
  Capturing the humour, sadness and joy of everyday life, Francesca Martinez's play All of Us is a passionate and timely look at the human cost of abandoning those who struggle to fit in.
  It premiered at the National Theatre, London, in August 2022, in a production directed by Ian Rickson, with an ensemble cast featuring Francesca Martinez in the role of Jess. It was shortlisted for the 2022 George Devine Award.

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