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
Jeff T. Johnson, excerpts from “the portal”
"Welcome, then, & stay a while, & keep the wolves in the wings, tearing the red curtains, a growling engine for our supernal machine, cast among the leaves." -- the portal by Jeff T. Johnson, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Jessica Bozek, excerpts from “Grief Machine: A Diary”
"Go to a wide field some windy afternoon. Look toward the horizon, where the animals, one by one, will stutter out of view. Lie down in what looks like the center. Grind the aching blue sky, if you can, to a fine powder and scatter it across the dirt as you mouth the options." — from Jessica Bozek's Grief Machine: A Diary, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Ni’Ja Whitson, excerpt from “The Unarrival Experiments”
"96 percent of the universe is Black / and unknown / Black And unknown / Math is an architecture of being" -- from Ni'Ja Whitson's The Unarrival Experiments, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Emily Carr, excerpts from “The Emergency of Feeling Manual”
"you gotta lean over the wastepaper basket, you gotta wipe your mouth, you gotta swallow." -- excerpts from Emily Carr's The Emergency of Feeling Manual, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Laura Goldstein, excerpt from “Golden Infection”
“i can see myself standing at the front of the room / this play is about relationships between bodies, / i tell them. they infect one another with their mouths,” — from Laura Goldstein's Golden Infection, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Jody Servon and Lorene Delany-Ullman, excerpts from “Saved: Objects of the Dead”
"30,000 people in a cow pasture, the Rosary prayed in four languages, “live” Stations of the Cross, and Polaroids of the sun at noon." -- from Saved: Objects of the Dead, by Jody Servon and Lorene Delany-Ullman, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
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.