Laura Altshul

Bodies Passing

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Laura Altshul's poems are "lit with life," to steal a phrase from this poet whose work is insistent and tender in perfect measure. Bodies Passing opens for us the pot's lid allowing us to experience the intense sensory details stirred into poems such as On Kauai, where "Air lightens around us, surrounds us/ humid and salty, sweet with jasmine/ gardenia, funky garbage, burnt sugar cane/ fried peppers and onions." Subjects ranging from the wonderful ars poetica that opens the collection to a woman sleeping with the ashes of a murdered child bear the bold mark of a poet able to deftly tackle the terrors and joys that are the essence of human experience. Laura Altshul's book is a gift to those who hunger for honesty and compassion in this complex world of ours. -Julia Paul, Manchester Poet Laureate Bodies Passing observes and celebrates the life of the body-its power and pains, its delights and limitations. Laura Altshul's earthy poems delve into sex, childbirth (or in some cases, animal birth), illness, infidelity, and the urgent impulse to get up and dance. The people in her poems come to life as complicated and interesting individuals. These poems, while not shying away from the wounds that come with living, are joyously affirmative. The title poem, "Bodies Passing," includes the phenomenon of a set of adult identical twins, one an astronaut and the other earthbound, who find that the one who escaped gravity for a while has grown two inches taller. The same poem poignantly observes an aging woman and her daughter. The mother is getting shorter as age compresses her spine. Their "two bodies passing / like the down escalator / viewed from the rising one." The poems in this collection are those of a talented writer, and they are full of great humanity. --Ginny Lowe Connors, author of Toward the Hanging Tree: Poems of Salem Village

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Laura Altshul
• Seitenzahl: 86
• Erscheinungstermin: 14. September 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 5mm
• Gewicht: 139g
• ISBN-13: 9781943826421
• ISBN-10: 1943826420
• Artikelnr.: 49129204

Autorenporträt

Laura Altshul is a Vassar College graduate with a Master's degree in Literature from NYU. She has taught in the Great Books program and in colleges, high schools, and elementary grades. She now tutors and serves on non-profit boards focused on providing educational and arts experiences for New Haven's children whose families don't ordinarily have access to these opportunities. Her first collection of poetry, Searching for the Northern Lights, appeared in 2015, her second, Bodies Passing, in 2017, and her third, Looking Out, in 2019, all from Antrim House. Although she has always written essays and stories, she turned to poetry in retirement. Her poems have been published in Connecticut River Review, Encore, Forgotten Women: A Tribute in Poetry, The Perch, Serving House Journal, Unlocking the Word: An Anthology of Found Poetry, Pulse, Our Changing Environment, The Circle, and Streetlight Magazine. Her poems have won prizes from The Connecticut Poetry Society, The Hamden Arts Commission, The New York Poetry Society, The Poetry Society of Michigan, The Tennessee Poetry Society, and The Utah Poetry Society. She was the featured poet in the half hour public television series Speaking of Poetry Episode 36, and has given readings throughout Connecticut. She co-leads the New Haven Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society with her husband, Victor Altshul. Together they have seven children and eleven grandchildren.