In Utero
EXCERPTS FROM THE LONGLISTS & SHORTLISTS
FOR THE TARPAULIN SKY BOOK AWARDS
IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
In Utero
EXCERPTS FROM THE LONGLISTS & SHORTLISTS FOR THE TARPAULIN SKY BOOK AWARDS
IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
Jared Joseph, Yizkor & Il enjoying muselé in général but feel dread
"fill us with what we want. / lord give us strength to copy / fill us with what we want / we want / to copulate in love / to violate to blank / to violet. / to violet / to copy in love / to xerox the deity...." Excerpts from Jared Joseph’s poetry manuscripts, Yizkor and Il enjoying muselé in général but feel dread, finalists for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Rachel Levy, A Book So Red
"At a certain point, Mitzi had no idea. 'I saw a gang,' she said. // 'Were they soldiers?' // 'They were flowers. It was summer. I love you.' // I told Mitzi she was sick, like a person with lice or a demon. // 'I love you,' I said, but that was a lie, a demon or a word that conceals another." Excerpts from Rachel Levy’s A Book So Red, winner of the 2014 Caketrain Competition and finalist for the TS Book Prize.
Arisa White, dear Gerald
"I watch a housewife on TV tell how she lost her leg at six to a farm machine. She’s beautiful—looks like a horse—but in her head she’s missing a leg." Excerpts from Arisa White’s cross-genre manuscript, dear Gerald, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
John Colasacco, Two Teenagers
"Two teenagers run away together to a place where all the lonely are slaughtered. // When they get there, they find a table and a tree." Excerpts from John Colasacco’s poetry manuscript, Two Teenagers, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize...
Jennifer S. Cheng, House A
"Dear Mao, To say your name plainly, as if you were a man of History I knew so well. My uncle as a twenty-year-old in prison, whispering, only it wasn’t a whisper but a drunken fury, They’re trading children, do you understand? Everyone is starving." Excerpts from Jennifer S. Cheng’s poetry manuscript, House A, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Michael Rerick, Communication of Space
"In opposition to the Left and postmodern diffuseness, cultural theorists undo poverty’s multiple hands and reassemble accounts into a limping globalism with a television on its back." Excerpts from Michael Rerick’s prose-poetry manuscript, Communication of Space, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Sandy Florian, The Chair
"Having climbed all five thousand stairs of the towering high-rise, OUR AUTHOR, in a red state of rage, erupts wildly into the room, and there, seeing that he was late to the conference, seeing that there were already so many authors at the table already, a million authors with a billion inflections, OUR AUTHOR thinks to himself that to pose even a single assertion, to converse with even a single poet, simply would not do...." Excerpts from Sandy Florian’s prose manuscript, The Chair, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Lara Glenum, JUNK SHOT
“We r strapped // 2 eachother / like some species // of occult glamour // I discharge my titters / over the bodies piling out // of the glass / The reanimation of my pie // in a funk of vex….” Excerpts from Lara Glenum’s poetry manuscript, JUNK SHOT, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Genya Turovskaya, The World Is Not The World
"The stars are different here, the stars do not make sense / I can connect these burning dots / There is a hummingbird / There a dancing bear / There a face with night pouring out of the black sockets of its eyes...." Excerpts from Genya Turovskaya’s poetry manuscript, The World Is Not The World, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Emily Carr, Name Your Bird Without A Gun
"Her voice is like a carnation sucking water, sucking blue. / She drinks. Hello she says. / Yes she says like the lion of St. Mark, with liquid nonchalance…." Excerpts from Emily Carr’s hybrid manuscript, Name Your Bird Without A Gun: A Tarot Novel, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.