Houses - Softcover

Wallschlaeger, Nikki

4.44 out of 5 stars

36 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0990813932 ISBN 13: 9780990813934

Publisher: Horse Less Press, 2015

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Poetry. African American Studies. Women's Studies. "In my father's house are many mansions," Jesus promised. In her deftly-aimed, disarmingly poised debut, Nikki Wallschlaeger leads us phrase by phrase through the many dim and brightly lit houses of our American psyche in this pitiless new century: "Hospitals. Lighted for end times. They run on glossy generators & backup generators, lights of all dreams." Her long lines push the phrases into tight proximities which are sometimes painful, sometimes grate up a little spark: "Neighbor, our hearts pumped blood in the same room, looking onto lakes that teenagers drown in." I admire the grave persistence of her vision, the precision of her eye and ear. Houses unflinchingly reports the extremity of contemporary existence and presents the "end times" as durational, as just something else to endure. "The bill, they say, is going through the house. Eventually we'll have to get real."—Joyelle McSweeney

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About the Author

Nikki Wallschlaeger is the author of two chapbooks, Head Theatre (2007) which etched itself out of her palms unexpectedly & I Would Be the Happiest Bird (2014). Her hands continue to talk, which is why she writes. Publications include Esque, Nervehouse, Coconut Poetry, Word Riot, Pirene's Fountain, Burdock, Spork, DecomP, Shirt Pocket Press, Horse Less Press, and others. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems called Crawlspace. She is also the Assistant Poetry Editor at Coconut. She lives in Milwaukee with her spouse and sons.