Transfer of Qualities - Softcover

Ronk, Martha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 189065082X ISBN 13: 9781890650827

Publisher: Omnidawn, 2013

Synopsis

Each entry in this book probes the dissolving boundaries between those sharing space with one another; and the various genres in the book—prose poem, creative nonfiction, and personal essay—echo the theme of interdependence. Transfer of Qualities addresses the uncanny and myriad ways in which people and things, but also people and those around them, exchange qualities with one another, moving in on and altering stance, attitude, mood, and gesture. Material things often seem amazingly alive and this collection follows an author engrossed with the boundaries between life and death, the moving and the still, and the stone-like book and the vivid stirring within the pages. There are many influences behind this collection, but the major genie of the piece is Henry James whose musings in The Sacred Fount provided the book’s title and direction.

About this title

About the Author:

Martha Ronk is the Irma and Jay Price professor of English at Occidental College and an award-winning poet. She is the author of nine books of poetry, including Eyetrouble, In a Landscape of Having to Repeat, Nightboat Books, Partially Kept, State of Mind, Vertigo, and Why/Why Not. She lives in Los Angeles.

Review:

"Ronk’s 10th collection takes as its central tenet the idea that people and objects engage in a deep kind of transference... desires and thoughts are imprinted on the thing, and some aspects of the thing rub off on the person." —Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Omnidawn
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 189065082X
• ISBN 13: 9781890650827
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 88