Description

University ofChicago Press,hardcover

Publication Date:March 21, 2022

Publisher Market:New poetry collection from Peter Balakian, author ofOzone Journal, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

In these poems, Peter Balakian wrestles with national and global cultural and political realities, including challenges for the human species amid planetary transmutation and the impact of mass violence on the self and culture. At the collections heart is No Sign, another in Balakians series of long-form poems, following A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy and Ozone Journal, which appeared in his previous two collections. In this dialogical multi-sectioned poem, an estranged couple encounters each other, after years, on the cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades. The dialogue that ensues reveals the evolution of a kaleidoscopic memory spanning decades, reflecting on the geological history of Earth and the climate crisis, the filmHiroshima Mon Amour, the Vietnam War, a visionary encounter with the George Washington Bridge,and the enduring power of love..

Whether meditating on the sensuality of fruits and vegetables, the COVID-19 pandemic, the trauma and memory of the Armenian genocide, James Baldwin in France, or Arshile Gorky in New York City, Balakians layered, elliptical language, wired phrases, and shifting tempos engage both lifes harshness and beauty and define his inventive and distinctive style.