Review-age

I'm delighted to find out that poet Andrew Kozma has reviewed Theories of Falling for Zoland, a cool annual that operates an an interesting hybrid between anthology and journal. Beautiful print values, too (though I'm not sure the print version includes the reviews). 


The review makes some lovely observations about the organization of the book, including the tonal shifts between the sections. An excerpt:



"This world is presented through the eyes of a child who is both being taught how to perceive the world by her family, and who looks back as an adult as a witness to how these lessons in perspective have betrayed her adulthood. For the speaker, nothing is as it seems, and nothing, finally, in her world, relates to how others describe the world as being. This prepares us for “Allergy Girl”, a long sequence that recounts the life of the speaker, a girl whose allergies make the world a dangerous place. And the world is dangerous not just because of her allergies, but because of the inability for others in the world to recognize her allergies. The parents try to calm the child down with food that simply makes her more irritable. They wonder why she won’t eat, and make delicacies to tempt her with poison instead. A disbelieving boyfriend tricks her with a kiss, his mouth full of chocolate; an ex insures against physical contact by eating cheese before a reunion.


This section – the first of three, titled “The Experiment” – embodies a world of deception, where things don’t shift form, they shift interpretation. The poems here show a mastery of metaphorical narrative, all the poems fitting together tightly towards a single goal even though the poems themselves tackle widely varying subjects."



Thanks, Andrew, for your careful attention to the work. It's nice to be reminded that a book continues to make its way out into the world after the first year. The full text is here. 


...and in other, less selfish news, congrats to D. A. Powell and Beth Bachmann, winners of this year's Kingsley Tufts ($100K, whoa) and the Kate Tufts Awards!