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
C.J. Waterman, My Teary TV Breakdown
"I watched myself laughing at puking children choking back smoke & slow roasting outside of an oven. My ‘World’s Best Dad’ t-shirt creates its own armpit stains." Excerpts from C.J. Waterman's poetry manuscript, My Teary TV Breakdown, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize
Felicia Zamora, Silence for the Rest of Class
"The underside of flesh {where light must soak}: a broken thing / etches —songs score along blood vessel, your throat / cannot sing the occult notes, your lungs in constant / deflate {all these wounds puncture wounds}, fill / unable–the scribe of defining {a heart ...." Excerpts from Felicia Zamora’s poetry manuscript, Silence for the Rest of Class, a finalist for the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize.
Kim Vodicka, Psychic Privates
"The love upon our garden gates / is whereupon gapes gunlight. // The Sussex annex of exploding hearts / in the fort nexus of forever. // They all smile when they say it." Excerpts from Kim Vodicka’s poetry manuscript, Psychic Privates, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Elisabeth Workman, You Always Live Again
“whisperings in the dumpster / all lattices of hesitation to be pulled down by / invasive crawling networks of the underneath / always roiling or just always there…” Excerpts from Elisabeth Workman’s poetry manuscript, You Always Live Again, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Lauren Russell, What’s Hanging on the Hush
"Her huffy histrionics take no heckling, that / uppity puffed-up pastiche mishmash. / The hellion half-breed’s / hussyfooted a harvest, a windfall / ensnarled in her miscegenated sassy nappery." Excerpts from Lauren Russell’s poetry manuscript, What's Hanging on the Hush, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
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.