Day 70 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and Susan, a poet, is reading The Girl Who Played with Fire, a gritty mystery, and, A Useless Window, a book of poetry.Because I've already mentioned the Stieg Larsson set of Swedish mysteries a couple times, not yet read one, and because it's National Poetry Month, we will focus on the poetry today.
A Useless Window is by Carrie Olivia Adams and is published by Black Ocean Press. This link sends you to a page where you can order it and also click around in the beautiful Black Ocean to read more about the press and find the editor's blog. The book blurb under the cover at the first link tells us Adams is the Chicago editor for Black Ocean.
The editor, Janaka Stucky, won Best Poet in Best of Boston's annual poll this year, partly, he explains, because he suggested himself as a write-in candidate, and plenty of people wrote him in! Like Susan herself, who was troubled by the same old, same old set of poets displayed in the big bookstores for National Poetry Month, Janaka was troubled by the list of Boston poets offered in the vote: Frank Bidart, Sam Cornish, Louise Gluck, Margo Lockwood, Robert Pinsky, and Rosanna Warren. I have read some but not all of these, admired much, and The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck is a favorite of mine. Stucky has read and admired the work of some of these poets, too, but it was the principle of the thing for him--not enough variety in the list. (I may return to this poetry-in-display theme tomorrow....) Stucky also edits a magazine called Handsome that sounds intriguing indeed.
I am hoping Susan will tell us more about A Useless Window here or in her own blog, Mythology and Milk. I love the title and the cover!
Meanwhile, please let me know if you are reading any poetry for National Poetry Month. If so, what and why. If not, why not?
Yesterday as I was volunteering at my kids' school library, a 4th grader checked out a book called "Out of the Dust" which is a story told in poems. It's told from the perspective of a 14 year old girl, during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. I checked a copy out of the NPL yesterday and plan to read it before April is done!
ReplyDeleteI've read this book! Loved it. Great way to get history, fiction, and poetry all at once!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about writing a little review! The cover is beautiful, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteIf you like Out of the Dust, the same author has another book called Witness (written in persona poems as well) that is deceptively simple and disturbingly beautiful Yay for your library encouraging poetry! I am currently reading peotry books by Dana Guthrie Martin, Kelli Russell Agodon, and Jack Gilbert, and just reviewed January O'Neil's Underlife on my blog.
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