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
Lisa Marie Basile and Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein, excerpts From “Nympholepsy”
"We’re almost fucking but we’re not. We’re all tongue. We’re all tongue down the glass, mouth open and taking. No, we’re not. We’re wasted on memory tonight. We’re fucking memories." -- from Nympholepsy, by Lisa Marie Basile and Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein, a finalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Miranda Metelski, Excerpts from “Resisting the Book of a Woman Possessed”
“Spiders crawl down my thighs, across my abdomen. A kind of scholarly pornography.” — from Miranda Metelski’s Resisting the Book of a Woman Possessed, a finalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Bridget Brewer, excerpt from “Beasts of Revelation”
"A flash of lightning from outside the cave, a brief illumination: snake heads, so many snake heads, swaying inches from the tip of her nose. ‘Emmeline,’ the heads say together in a language not legible above ground. ‘O crooked, ugly Emmeline: you are blessed.’" -- from Bridget Brewer's Beasts of Revelation, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Five Poems by Kirsten Kaschock
"Take this frackwaste voice you wish / I’d use 4 truth instead of dare. You’ll want // to salt&bury it, so it don’t rise, but where’s / your shovel? Where’s the body?" Kirsten Kaschock's manuscript, Numbness, the Practice was semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Jeff T. Johnson, excerpts from “The Book / Or / The Woods”
"Y the monster has a deck of cards. The back of each a / forest. The monster lays a cross along discarded leaves. The / cards are invisible, but the monster knows they are there...." -- from Jeff T. Johnson's The Book / Or / The Woods, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Marty Cain, Two Poems
"I dream of my manifest body / and coexisting with toxic waste, I dream of cops / who murder babies, I dream of teachers who murder babies, / I dream of a doctor who says You want a boy / and pulls a cock from his drawer and glues it on / and it dangles flaccid and huge from our infant’s body ..." -- From Marty Cain's The Wound Is (Not) Real: A Memoir, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
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.