THE COMPANY WE KEEP: POETRY AS WITNESS & WARNING – POETRY
Reginald Dwayne Betts is our foremost chronicler of the ways prison shapes and transforms American life. In Doggerel, he examines this subject through a more prosaic – but equally rich – lens: dogs. He reminds us that, as our lives are broken and put back together, the only witness often barks instead of talks. Doggerel is a meditation on family, falling in love, friendship, and those who accompany us on our walk through life. With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the celebrated abstract artist, in ways that open up new modes of expression, expanding the scope of what art, poetry, and the human mind can do. Filled with surprise and insight, wit and profundity, the book explores the nature of the self, of existence, life and death, grief and depression, time and space. Harryette Mullen is one of contemporary poetry’s most influential voices, for her inventive language play, keen wit, formal experimentation, and pointed critique of American culture. In Regaining Unconsciousness, she confronts the imminent dangers of our present to sound an alarm for our future, to wake us out of our complicity and despondency: Can we, even still, find our way to our unconscious selves, beyond our capacity to harm, subdue, and consume?
Buy With My Back to the World – Chang
Buy Regaining Unconsciousness – Mullen
