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2010 Lambda Award Finalist for Lesbian Poetry ISBN: 9780982541609 Cover: Remedios Varo | Ícono, 1945 [Icon] Click here for larger cover image $12 includes shipping in the U.S. (vs. $14 + $3.99 at Amazon) PRAISE FOR STARS OF THE NIGHT COMMUTE Thought-provoking, inspired and unexpected. Highly recommended. Stars of the Night Commute haunts in three dimensions, knit by a below-words rumble in the sure rhythm of dreams. Many of the poems
carry a shamanistic, elemental quality, as if real matter were
articulating out of word-fragments. Božičević writes, "At the end of
poetry the poem can no longer be remote." If this is "the end of
poetry," perhaps poetry is, after all, reaching forward back to its
beginning. Though Božičević’s work does terrify, and so, by extension, is rightly ‘about’ terror . . . Stars is more accurately (and happily) about what an émigré does, heart and eyes intact and hungry for the redemptive and the beautiful, after having experienced all that is contrary to the love and kindness (that can be) human beings. Ana Božičević's poetry has everything—a mastery of language, a distinct and singular voice and a worldview so visionary and all-encompassing, so as to both terrify and astound. The words bristle with life, and they command the deepest reverence for the Ineffable, for pure Being. This poetry is clever without being shallow, and this is truly rare. Silence is my most honest response to her work, but a silence rooted in respect and awe for that which is truly great art. Ana Božičević's work is sort of animist—it’s either about silence or
the racket of the world. How does she do it? Clicks the switch to say
it’s silent & it’s happening then on a distant tiny stage. She’s
muttering, and then it’s a story and a very good one. I mean in poetry
at some point you don’t know what the writer means. In Ana’s work I
watch “it” vanish (all the time) & I trust it.
Ana Božičević's work is filled with a wild freedom, and reading it
often reminds me of reading Wallace Stevens, in that you know absolutely
anything can happen next but whatever it is, it will be perfect. In her
poems she expresses an attitude of solemn responsibility to history, both
the world's and her own, yet there is often a marvelous lightness, even
playfulness about them. She is able to stretch language to its most
ineffable and musical limits while maintaining a masterful grasp of the
colloquial. These are not just technical matters. An émigré from reality (in
the form of one of modern time's most monstrously and moronically cruel
wars) and a Cassandra, she is able to perceive with the eyes of
language—then render with lyrical immediacy—the experience of our
collective sleepwalking soul, who may well soon awaken to discover that its
terror was not a dream. ABOUT ANA BOŽIČEVIĆ Ana Božičević was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1977. She emigrated to NYC in 1997. Stars of the Night Commute is her first book of poems. Her fifth chapbook, Depth Hoar, will be published by Cinematheque Press in 2010. With Amy King, Ana co-curates The Stain of Poetry reading series in Brooklyn, and is co-editing an anthology, The Urban Poetic, forthcoming from Factory School. She works at the Center for the Humanities of The Graduate Center, CUNY. For more, visit anabozicevic.com. READING & EVENTS October 18, 2010: New York, NY
October 15, 2010, Atlanta, GA October 15, 2010, Atlanta, GA July 17, 2010: Philadelphia, PA June 11, 2010: Brooklyn, NY May 13, 2010: Cincinnati, OH February 20, 2010: Raleigh, NC November 30, 2009: New York, NY November 21, 2009: Brooklyn, NY: BROOKLYN FIRST BOOK PARTY November 9, 2009: New York, NY: MANHATTAN BOOK PARTY November 6, 2009: San Francisco, CA November 5, 2009: San Francisco, CA October 29, 2009: Providence, RI
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