Bøger af Allison Joseph

The third book of poems in a trilogy that includes the earlier volumes Bright Fame and Psalm for a Second Meeting. Our two lovers, one a widow, one a healer, both poets, meet again, this time in the Pacific Northwest.

A book of poems about artistic doubt and rising above it.

WHAT ONCE YOU LOVED is a delight to read and savor out loud--gorgeous and golden in Joseph's trademark poetic elegance and fun, often in the same poem. This chapbook reminds me of all the fun and sass to be had when writing in traditional form--her villanelles especially are full of charm and endlessly kaleidoscopic--and how vital, how affirming it is to read about women's bodies-in all their beautiful shapes. --Aimee Nezhukumatathil

The question of resiliency, of learning how to survive and to not just bounce back from life's blows but to thrive, is a central concern of Allison Joseph's work. In her chapbook The Purpose of Hands she ruminates upon such ontological questions. How can identity form when crippled by self loathing, self-doubt? Yet what is a narrative of the Self but a story in which the obstacles placed before us are broken as we arise? It is striking how self-aware she is and what lessons she's had to learn in order to inhabit this world as both a woman and a woman of color. Femininity is much cause for celebration and joy while also being a crucible to endure. Her deliberate phrasings threaten the security and steadiness of knowing oneself by cementing the turbulence of grief and goodbyes. But love is redeeming as much as it is revelatory, and the art of craft is what is required to breathe. Lyricism and musicality offer the saving grace of lightness, a soul scorching relief."

A sequel to Bright Fame: Love Poems, Psalm for a Second Meeting is a collection of rhymed love poems in the tradition of Emily and Edna--Dickinson and St. Vincent Millay. The lovers of Bright Fame (a widow and a healer, both poets) await their second meeting.

Speak and Spell takes its title from a favorite childhood toy-a mini computer that prompted the user into knowledge by helping with the spelling of new words. So does Allison Joseph in this mini collection. Joseph loves the odd and the usual, the plain and the strange, the fun and the tragic. Reading Joseph's poems is like having a conversation with a friend who never stops noticing all the little things that you might ignore. She's chatty, but she sure is perceptive.

Allison Joseph's vision and skill are Whitmanian in their breadth, containing multitudes, as with the bounty contained in these poems of like name.

Lexicon is a worthy successor to Allison Joseph's award-winning breakthrough, Confessions of a Barefaced Woman. This time around, this self-professed ';barefaced woman' is setting her sighs/sights on language and what it does for and with and to her. Joseph loves language, making it her slippery passion in poems about childhood griefs and fashion faux pas, movie musicals and empty airports, ';rules' for writing and rules for reading. Though Joseph loves language, it doesn't always love her backbut in her wise, readable, and imaginative way, she persists while documenting the minefields of racism and sexism. Joseph finds joy in the most unlikely of places, and in Lexicon, her adoration for the written word lets us see those places in sharp and evocative relief. All hail this bounty, this Lexicon!

The centerpiece of Allison Joseph's sixth full-length poetry collection is a sequence of thirty-four sonnets about losing her father. "Superbly executed, part family history and part homage, Allison Joseph strings the frail human voices across the forceful lines of her verse to summon her absent father back from the dead." -- Maura Stanton

A collection of poetry by Allison Joseph.