Overview

In Insert Coin the reckless project of American capitalism and imperialism is felt through four characters-a contestant, a drone operator, a monster, and a prisoner-who interact in a world of game shows, chain-of-command killing, and confusion around the virtual and the real. Through video games, fantasy, and drone warfare by joystick, the book chronicles dissociation and denial as well as a soul longing for meaning in a world whose absurd violence and demand for profit feels simulated but is all too real. Insert Coin launches an experimental syntax with strict formal constraints, such as a 6-syllable line by 8-line stanza sequence to suggest the unbearable dimensions of a solitary confinement cell. In these poems, a civilization that can only imagine destruction asks, ""how do I get to the next level?""

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Joshua Zelesnick's poetry collection, Insert Coin (Finishing Line Press, 2025) was a finalist for the Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize at Conduit Books and Ephemera and the Trio Award at Trio House Press. Cherub Poems, his chapbook, was published with Bonfire Books in 2019. His poetry and prose have appeared widely in magazines and journals including Diagram, The Texas Review, Jubilat, Juked, Labor Notes, and Counterpunch. He's currently working on a poetry book titled Very Beautifully, Suddenly. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his loving partner and kids in a garden co-housing community. With friends, he helps host a living-room music and reading series.

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