"Don't expect sense from these poems, in which grief, politics, literary theory, and sexuality interweave. But do expect language surprise and beautiful metaphors. . . . When [Akilah] Oliver presents her experiences in metaphor-rich language, the reader feels what she feels: incredible loss, infinite pain."--Library Journal "An extraordinary gift for everyone."--Alice Notley Written for her son, Oluchi McDonald (1982-2003), Akilah Oliver's poems incorporate prose, theory, and lyric performance into a powerful testimony of loss and longing. In their journey through the borderlands of sorrow, they grapple with violence, find expression in chants, and, like the graffiti she analyzes, become a place of public and artistic memorial. "If memory is the act of bearing witness," she writes, "then the dream is a friend driving us somewhere." Akilah Oliver is the author of the she said dialogues, recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she currently lives in Brooklyn and curates the Monday Night Reading Series at the Poetry Project.

A compelling debut collection from the first Coptic American poet to be published in the United States.

Praise for Bill Berkson: "A serene master of syntactical sleight and transformer of the mundane into the marvelous."—Publishers Weekly Wide-ranging and experimental, Expect Delays confronts past and present with rare equilibrium, eyeballing mortality while appreciating the richness and surprise, as well as the inevitable griefs, inherent in the time allowed. Dress Trope Critics should wear white jackets like lab technicians; curators, zoo keepers' caps; and art historians, lead aprons to protect them from impending radiant fact. Bill Berkson is a poet, critic, and professor emeritus at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Immersed in botanical insight, Fox's experimentations with language and life illuminate this accomplished debut.

Uncorrected proof copy.

Seven essays celebrating the beauty of the imperfect marriage. We hear plenty about whether or not to get married, but much less about what it takes to stay married. Clichés around marriage—eternal bliss, domestic harmony, soul mates—leave out the real stuff. After marriage you may still want to sleep with other people. Sometimes your partner will bore the hell out of you. And when stuck paying for your spouse’s mistakes, you might miss being single. In Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, Ada Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a long-overdue conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which “the first twenty years are the hardest.” Calhoun’s funny, poignant personal essays explore the bedrooms of modern coupledom for a nuanced discussion of infidelity, existential anxiety, and the many other obstacles to staying together. Both realistic and openhearted, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers a refreshing new way to think about marriage as a brave, tough, creative decision to stay with another person for the rest of your life. “What a burden,” Calhoun calls marriage, “and what a gift.”

A significant presence at the St. Mark's Poetry Project and the Nuyorican Poets' Care, Michael Scholnick was one of a number of poets whose work successfully bridged the gap between the New York School and the Beats. The editors have compiled sixty poems for this publication from four manuscripts -- two poems which are published here for the first time.Scholnick brings to light items hidden yet at once revealing -- some particular offbeat detail that casts a new perspective on the moment. His poems illuminate in an extraordinary and minimalistic way life and family in New York.