Overview

Poetry. Italian Studies. In poems born of the rocky soil of the old country, where children learn to sew in a 'walled-in-garden' with 'one potted plant--crown of thorns, ' Frasca threads history and myth. She tells of immigrant hope that turns so quickly to devastating loss, and makes exile real--the self in search of the self. Writing to her counterpart, Anna, who dies young back in Sicily, and carrying her father's ghost, time feels endless, simultaneous. But Frasca is also a poet of wonder, and this work is alive, visionary, painterly. Here, myth isn't an old story, it is the art of transformation, and Frasca embodies an ever-present unfolding.--Anne Marie Macari Like mulberries that both stain and heal, these luscious poems and stories insist on our culpability in the misery of familiar or distant others while also consoling and nurturing with sensorial and sensual pleasures only a poet like Frasca, living within the tension between assimilation and alienation, between worlds that 'disorient & enlighten, ' can deliver. Frasca threads through memories wary of the ways nostalgia scars, seeking antidotes by turning writing into a 'battledress, ' and crafting introspection into a means of saving us 'from our ugly stink.' Enter WILD FENNEL's 'feral fires' and you will emerge both bruised and blessed, loving anise seeds and the smell of fox the way one should, on their own terms.--Mihaela Moscaliuc

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9781599541402

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"In poems born of the rocky soil of the old country, where children learn to sew in a ""walled-in-garden"" with ""one potted plant--crown of thorns,"" Frasca threads history and myth. She tells of immigrant hope that turns so quickly to devastating loss, and makes exile real--the self in search of the self. Writing to her counterpart, Anna, who dies young back in Sicily, and carrying her father's ghost, time feels endless, simultaneous. But Frasca is also a poet of wonder, and this work is alive, visionary, painterly. Here, myth isn't an old story, it is the art of transformation, and Frasca embodies an ever-present unfolding. --Anne Marie Macari Like mulberries that both stain and heal, these luscious poems and stories insist on our culpability in the misery of familiar or distant others while also consoling and nurturing with sensorial and sensual pleasures only a poet like Frasca, living within the tension between assimilation and alienation, between worlds that ""disorient & enlighten,"" can deliver. Frasca threads through memories wary of the ways nostalgia scars, seeking antidotes by turning writing into a ""battledress,"" and crafting introspection into a means of saving us ""from our ugly stink."" Enter Wild Fennel's ""feral fires"" and you will emerge both bruised and blessed, loving anise seeds and the smell of fox the way one should, on their own terms. --Mihaela Moscaliuc"

In poems born of the rocky soil of the old country, where children learn to sew in a walled-in-garden with one potted plant--crown of thorns, Frasca threads history and myth. She tells of immigrant hope that turns so quickly to devastating loss, and makes exile real--the self in search of the self. Writing to her counterpart, Anna, who dies young back in Sicily, and carrying her father's ghost, time feels endless, simultaneous. But Frasca is also a poet of wonder, and this work is alive, visionary, painterly. Here, myth isn't an old story, it is the art of transformation, and Frasca embodies an ever-present unfolding. --Anne Marie Macari Like mulberries that both stain and heal, these luscious poems and stories insist on our culpability in the misery of familiar or distant others while also consoling and nurturing with sensorial and sensual pleasures only a poet like Frasca, living within the tension between assimilation and alienation, between worlds that disorient & enlighten, can deliver. Frasca threads through memories wary of the ways nostalgia scars, seeking antidotes by turning writing into a battledress, and crafting introspection into a means of saving us from our ugly stink. Enter Wild Fennel's feral fires and you will emerge both bruised and blessed, loving anise seeds and the smell of fox the way one should, on their own terms. --Mihaela Moscaliuc

Author Information

Marisa Frasca is the author of VIA INCANTO: POEMS FROM THE DARKROOM, and WILD FENNEL: POEMS AND OTHER STORIES. Frasca holds a BA in creative writing from The New School and an MFA in poetry from Drew University. Her poems and translations have been featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies. She serves on the Advisory Board of Arba Sicula, a non-profit organization that preserves and disseminates the Sicilian language, literature, and folklore.

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