Overview

In its five year anniversary edition, Crowd Surfing With God surges back to life with updated work, new and unreleased poems, and a foreword by National Book Award-nominated bestseller Hanif Abdurraqib. This coming-of-age journey through poems tells a story of self-acceptance that discusses growing up with a rare genetic disorder and mental illness, family and being in a multifaith household, pop culture, and the acts of playing and listening to music bringing you closer to yourself and to healing.

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9781948552165

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""Adrienne Novy begins Crowd Surfing With God with a nod to the Song of Songs, utterly appropriate for a collection where so much feels like a dream and everything feels urgent. 'I slept, but my heart was awake, ' says the Song of Songs, and Novy responds: 'The imaginary audience in the driveway still hums to our shadows. / We break into our loudest prayer.' Like the Song of Songs, this book orbits love on Earth that reaches far beyond: a father uses a steak knife to cut pills in half for his daughter, a singer howls into a microphone 'like the Angel of Death.' As with all the most interesting poets, Novy writes with her feet on the ground and her head in the stars."" -Kaveh Akbar, author of Pilgrim Bell and Martyr! ""Crowd Surfing With God is a book of consistent breaking and re-fixing. I love most how it pulls at the edges of Adrienne Novy's many parts, stepping outside the binaries of love, loss, identity, genre, and all manner of things holy. There is sharp language and palpable imagery, yes. But what works best about the book is how it grabs a reader by each arm, dragging them into many new directions, where impossible brightness waits to be discovered."" -Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us and A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance ""All of us cry and yet the next day arrives with an invitation to move forward. Strength lives in vulnerability, and this book is a prime example. To anyone who has felt like a misfit, a black sheep, or a burden, this collection gives us the gift of sharing our stories and rising above. Thank you, Adrienne."" -Caitin Stickles, model, actress, and singer ""'Vulnerability' has become something of a buzzword these days, but when I sit with Adrienne Novy's work, vulnerability is the first thing that comes shining through. The same open heart tenderness in Fall Out Boy's very best lyrics sings in Novy's 'I have yet to forgive the ache I once created.' The same way Dan Campbell might lead us through the complexities of aging and loss, Novy guides us through disability, grief, queerness, and deep gratitude for the things we love. The feeling I get when I watch Gerard Way onstage, screaming at kids not to kill themselves, is the same feeling in the line, 'I am thankful to have lived life long enough to love it.' There is something so special in this book, and I am thankful to have lived life long enough to read it."" -Lip Manegio, author of We've All Seen Helena"

""Adrienne Novy begins Crowd Surfing With God with a nod to the Song of Songs, utterly appropriate for a collection where so much feels like a dream and everything feels urgent. 'I slept, but my heart was awake, ' says the Song of Songs, and Novy responds: 'The imaginary audience in the driveway still hums to our shadows. / We break into our loudest prayer.' Like the Song of Songs, this book orbits love on Earth that reaches far beyond: a father uses a steak knife to cut pills in half for his daughter, a singer howls into a microphone 'like the Angel of Death.' As with all the most interesting poets, Novy writes with her feet on the ground and her head in the stars."" -Kaveh Akbar, author of Pilgrim Bell and Martyr! ""Crowd Surfing With God is a book of consistent breaking and re-fixing. I love most how it pulls at the edges of Adrienne Novy's many parts, stepping outside the binaries of love, loss, identity, genre, and all manner of things holy. There is sharp language and palpable imagery, yes. But what works best about the book is how it grabs a reader by each arm, dragging them into many new directions, where impossible brightness waits to be discovered."" -Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us and A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance ""All of us cry and yet the next day arrives with an invitation to move forward. Strength lives in vulnerability, and this book is a prime example. To anyone who has felt like a misfit, a black sheep, or a burden, this collection gives us the gift of sharing our stories and rising above. Thank you, Adrienne."" -Caitin Stickles, model, actress, and singer ""'Vulnerability' has become something of a buzzword these days, but when I sit with Adrienne Novy's work, vulnerability is the first thing that comes shining through. The same open heart tenderness in Fall Out Boy's very best lyrics sings in Novy's 'I have yet to forgive the ache I once created.' The same way Dan Campbell might lead us through the complexities of aging and loss, Novy guides us through disability, grief, queerness, and deep gratitude for the things we love. The feeling I get when I watch Gerard Way onstage, screaming at kids not to kill themselves, is the same feeling in the line, 'I am thankful to have lived life long enough to love it.' There is something so special in this book, and I am thankful to have lived life long enough to read it."" -Lip Manegio, author of We've All Seen Helena

Author Information

Adrienne Novy is an artist from the suburbs of Chicago (Potawatomi Land). A 2020 graduate from Hamline University's Creative Writing program, Adrienne's work has been nominated for Bettering American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Crowd Surfing With God (Half Mystic Press 2018) and Erev Gildene: The Pop-Rock Survival Guide for the Modern Jewish Millennial (Game Over Books 2022). Adrienne lives on social media @adriennenovy and has a cat named Laurie. Recent journal publications can be found at www.adriennenovy.com.

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