Overview

The 119th winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize places science at the heart of his powerful poems For John Liles, science and the natural world form a route into the workings of love, of grief, and of joy in the thrum of life. Judge Rae Armantrout calls his poems ""dense, sonically gorgeous studies of various natural things and creatures, including light, bees, minerals, shellfish and crabs, insects, and the workings (and failure) of the heart."" Written under the shadow of our changing climate, Liles's poems are tender elegies but also praise-songs for the continual unfolding richness of the world. Writes Liles, ""oh unending animal, / you go where / the light goes.""

Full Product Details

9780300279429

Table of Contents

Reviews

“[Liles] is especially attuned to the small, the things we take for granted or don’t notice at all. . . . [His] speculative precision is where science meets art.”—Rae Armantrout, from the Foreword “For John Liles, matter’s ecstatic. With precise science and sprung rhythm, his poems render ecological intimacies legible and audible. Biotic or abiotic, everything here sings, from cell down to particle.”—Brian Teare, author of Poem Bitten by a Man “Reading this is like looking into a microscope: everything small is consequential, and almost unrecognizable. A book full of scientific terms shouldn’t be able to grab you by the emotions, but it does.”—Matthew Rohrer, author of Army of Giants “This is a dual work, both prism and portal, where the specific Real and the honed, carefully tuned language—sonic, micro- and macroscopic—conjoin, crystallizing into delicate forms on Liles’s rarefied page.”—Cody-Rose Clevidence, author of Listen My Friend, This Is the Dream I Dreamed Last Night

Author Information

John Liles is a poet, science writer, and living mammal. His chapbook Following the dog down was the recipient of the Omnidawn Chapbook Prize. He lives in Fort Bragg, CA. Rae Armantrout is the award-winning author of eighteen books of poetry, most recently Finalists, Conjure, and Wobble.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available