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
Zeeshan Pathan, “The Minister of Disturbances”
"This is my prayer. The doors of the night / Have been eaten by termites. I am just beginning." -- from Zeeshan Pathan's The Minister of Disturbances, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Never Angeline Nørth, excerpts from “Sea-Witch”
"Like everything, all of Sea-Witch contains her history. Every part of her has bits of what has come before." — from Never Angeline Nørth 's Sea-Witch, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Vincent James, excerpt from “Doomsday”
"We’d never been kept out past dusk. Never bottomed out to transcendent panorama. Never thrived in the unholy glower of the mountain-perched bighorns." — from Vincent James' Doomsday, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Kami Westhoff, excerpts from “What the Blood Tells You to Be”
"The sky is already more bruise than bright.... We say to each other You never know, though we’re mothers. We’ve never not known." — from Kami Westhoff's What the Blood Tells You to Be, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Julianne Neely, poems from “I’m Like the Language Boys”
"Yes / my insides / look like bar graphs / don’t act like / you’re unsure what that / means Yes I am invested in your well-being / but / I must reinvent the opus I am" -- from Julianne Neely's I’m Like the Language Boys, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Joshua Corey: excerpts from “Hannah and the Master”
"Widescreen nativity: nativity of the eye. Ringed by lashes and flames. // Endgame cinema, Nuremberg hypothesis, the present unforgiven by both past and future...." -- from Hannah and the Master, a finalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
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.
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.