Overview

"""A searing collection of poetry by an accomplished writer.""-Kirkus Reviews ""What Came After offers a series of poems that explore, in exquisitely human and intimate detail, the struggles associated with mental illness . . . These poems are a reckoning with ache, memory and self, grounded in the heavy empathy of the shared moment and the relative distance of time.""-Quraysh Ali Lansana, author of the skin of dreams: new and collected poems 1995-2018 and Opal's Greenwood Oasis."

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Reviews

"""A searing collection of poetry by an accomplished writer.""-Kirkus Reviews""In generously insightful and economically crafted poems, What Came After offers revelations such as, 'History. We'd rather not know...Until it comes for us. Then we know.' And while Christopher Stewart is right in his perceptions of common human behaviors, his poetry is uncommon. He makes personal history-material about his boyhood, mother, lovers, mental health-a story I very much want to know. Stewart's poetry is intimate at the same time that it includes others, seeing the migrant crossing the desert in the dark and sensing the presence of the cancer patient down the hall, and connects to a larger sense of the world. His poetry confronts life's terrors and the threat of its end, yet, thanks to his command of form, music, syntax, and image, when I finish reading this book, the feeling that haunts me is, yes, melancholy but, more than that, lovely.""-Rose McLarney, author of Colorfast ""What Came After offers a searing series of poems that explore, in exquisitely human and intimate detail, the struggles associated with mental illness. Daybreak arrives in the shape of a gun opens the poem Clinical, Part II. The line is applicable to the book as a whole: that stark but nagging contrast between darkness and tainted light; the quiet desperation and tender screams of interior violence made exterior, made flesh. From Dallas to San Francisco to Chicago, from a post-Kennedy/King birth to an unsettled, polarized now, Stewart's lush lyricism reminds us we are linked by a tether of dim hope. These poems are a reckoning with ache, memory and self, grounded in the heavy empathy of the shared moment and the relative distance of time.""-Quraysh Ali Lansana, author of the skin of dreams: new and collected poems 1995-2018 and Opal's Greenwood Oasis.""What Came After offers no answers, just the sure-handed telling of a life that has included mental illness, abuse, and loss but also kindness, comfort, and intimacy. Without smoothing the harsh or overlooking the tender, Christopher Stewart creates a stunning urgency in each of these poems. Throughout this excellent new collection, Stewart demonstrates a deft use of detail, often understated, that both pierces the heart and jolts the reader awake. I highly recommend this book.""-Mike Puican, author of Central Air.""The years reveal a tally of losses..."" These opening words of What Came After are part of a gravitational pull towards something unlikely - discovery at every turn. Christopher Stewart gives us language that is inventive, edifying, and out of the ordinary. The poet tells American stories that are personal and communal, made of memory, both brutal and brave.""-Michael Warr, Poetry Editor, Of Poetry & Protest From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin"

"""A searing collection of poetry by an accomplished writer.""-Kirkus Reviews ""In generously insightful and economically crafted poems, What Came After offers revelations such as, 'History. We'd rather not know...Until it comes for us. Then we know.' And while Christopher Stewart is right in his perceptions of common human behaviors, his poetry is uncommon. He makes personal history-material about his boyhood, mother, lovers, mental health-a story I very much want to know. Stewart's poetry is intimate at the same time that it includes others, seeing the migrant crossing the desert in the dark and sensing the presence of the cancer patient down the hall, and connects to a larger sense of the world. His poetry confronts life's terrors and the threat of its end, yet, thanks to his command of form, music, syntax, and image, when I finish reading this book, the feeling that haunts me is, yes, melancholy but, more than that, lovely.""-Rose McLarney, author of Colorfast ""What Came After offers a searing series of poems that explore, in exquisitely human and intimate detail, the struggles associated with mental illness. Daybreak arrives in the shape of a gun opens the poem Clinical, Part II. The line is applicable to the book as a whole: that stark but nagging contrast between darkness and tainted light; the quiet desperation and tender screams of interior violence made exterior, made flesh. From Dallas to San Francisco to Chicago, from a post-Kennedy/King birth to an unsettled, polarized now, Stewart's lush lyricism reminds us we are linked by a tether of dim hope. These poems are a reckoning with ache, memory and self, grounded in the heavy empathy of the shared moment and the relative distance of time.""-Quraysh Ali Lansana, author of the skin of dreams: new and collected poems 1995-2018 and Opal's Greenwood Oasis. ""What Came After offers no answers, just the sure-handed telling of a life that has included mental illness, abuse, and loss but also kindness, comfort, and intimacy. Without smoothing the harsh or overlooking the tender, Christopher Stewart creates a stunning urgency in each of these poems. Throughout this excellent new collection, Stewart demonstrates a deft use of detail, often understated, that both pierces the heart and jolts the reader awake. I highly recommend this book.""-Mike Puican, author of Central Air. ""The years reveal a tally of losses..."" These opening words of What Came After are part of a gravitational pull towards something unlikely - discovery at every turn. Christopher Stewart gives us language that is inventive, edifying, and out of the ordinary. The poet tells American stories that are personal and communal, made of memory, both brutal and brave.""-Michael Warr, Poetry Editor, Of Poetry & Protest From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin"

Author Information

Christopher Stewart is co-author of The Walmart Republic. His poems have appeared in Bryant Literary Review, The Perch, Connecticut River Review, and many other journals. His work frequently addresses themes concerning mental illness and recovery. In his academic career, Stewart served as Dean of Libraries at Illinois Institute of Technology and held faculty appointments at Dominican University and the University of Southern California. He was a finalist for the Iowa Review Award. Stewart lives in Urbana, Illinois.

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