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
Valerie Hsiung, poems from “Tell Me How It Makes You Feel”
"There’s a lot I have to tell you / but the oil keeps burning to please the spirits who let us even speak / In every epoch / I have called your name back to me / Your cheek to the inside of my palm / My cheek to the inside of your palm" — from Valerie Hsiung's Tell Me How It Makes You Feel, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Steffan Triplett, excerpt from “Inclement”
"A storm came through Joplin and left all these broken trees, and homes, and bodies. It left all these dreams. People let go of their kids. Their parents. Their love. On the twenty-second day of May, we handed over gifts to the gray arm of the sky." Steffan Triplett's Inclement is shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Brad Baumgartner, poems from “Stylinaut”
"The love-f(l)ur(r)y of a thousand suns auto-germinating abreast the st(a)rnum and the pollinating of the pleasures of the sol-ar plexus." -- from Brad Baumgartner's Stylinaut, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Jessica K Baer, excerpts from “Midwestern Infinity Doctrine”
"Behind the supercenter, its immortal gloaming a refinery pumps slowmagma against the purple-contour ripped sky. Outloud, colors I cry My God, My God." -- from Jessica K Baer's Midwestern Infinity Doctrine, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Dylan Krieger, poems from “The Scar Tour”
"too bad there isn’t such a thing as / conservation of grief / the chemicals only spread / the ache only keeps opening its hands / take this—until you’re ash and then / regenerate tenderness again again" — from Dylan Krieger's The Scar Tour, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Jordan Chesnut, “How Gross, My Seances”
"In 2015, the body of my former partner was found in the wastewater treatment facility of our college town. I wrote this play-in-verse in an attempt to uncover the reason or path of his departure...." Jordan Chesnut's How Gross, My Seances, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Cat Ingrid Leeches, excerpt from “I wander the earth, hungry for semen”
"The only remarkable thing about me is that I have lots of lovers. / And when these men first enter my home / their worms are glistening & smug. They say things to me like: / 'Your lovely rapids will be crammed with my corpses.' / 'I will tread you down to dust.'" -- from Cat Ingrid Leeches' I wander the earth, hungry for semen, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
maia vlcek, “(in a gas station when the desert was raining)”
"+ in situ MISS knoxville, tn: 1-minute miss for $3 best fried chicken drive-thru i’ve ever had miss drove thru too afraid to get out looking half a boy" -- poems from maia vlcek's (in a gas station when the desert was raining), shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Ryan Kaveh Sheldon, poems from “mechanical turk”
"My face aches / from shouting / I don’t ask / what the God is here, / the geopolitical / reticulations / that make it permissible / for someone to talk / about sword and book / without regard for currency / and its schematizing evils" — from Ryan Kaveh Sheldon's mechanical turk, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Candice Wuehle, poems from “Death Industrial Complex”
"for our initiation we prayed to a sponge; we looked real close at our tan lines to try and decide where the darkness started and stopped; we knew we were living when our voices came out like theremin, when we could sense the fault lines moving under our feet." — from Candice Wuehle's Death Industrial Complex, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.