Synopsis
Whipstitches contains ninety-nine compact poems that stitch together the haunting story of a West Virginian family and farm in crisis. Beauty and brutality fuse into moments of acute clarity that collapse time, subjectivity, and landscape. With lyrical precision and meticulous attention to form and narrative, Randi Ward's collection creates a metaphoric ecology that grounds readers in the unsettling awareness that we are all born into and constantly shape and take shape within fields fraught with commingling currents of language, culture, and history.
These poems are never merely pastoral, and their emotional range belies their small size. Here are poems that move from the lyrical and humorous to the acerbic, the rueful, and even the creepy. Every little whipstitch, we can hear Randi Ward's haunted and haunting voice moving between worlds like a wily shape-shifter. Maggie Anderson, author of A Space Filled With Moving and Years That Answer
What a fresh, disturbing new voice is found in this collection! Imagine the quirky, revelatory ways Emily Dickinson saw the world meshed with the succinct clarities of Lorine Niedecker. Now add a dose of H. P. Lovecraft, and you have some sense of the triumph these surprising little poems achieve. Marc Harshman, Poet Laureate of West Virginia and author of Believe What You Can
Randi Ward's poems: western-world haikus? In one sense they are, but these succinct, precisely crafted poems rarely conclude in a mere acknowledgment of the thing per se, the event per se, as in the Japanese literary genre. Ward's poems unfold unaffectedly, yet with increasing enigma. Snow is rarely just snow, broomsedge is rarely just broomsedge. Whipstitches narrates a subjectivity, a human body within the world, a poetic sensibility that is among the subtlest that I have encountered in my recent reading. John Taylor, author of If Night is Falling and The Apocalypse Tapestries
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About the Author
Randi Ward is a poet, translator, lyricist, and photographer from West Virginia. She earned her MA in Cultural Studies from the University of the Faroe Islands and is a recipient of the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Prize. Her work has been featured on Folk Radio UK, National Public Radio, and PBS NewsHour. Cornell University Library established the Randi Ward Collection in its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in 2015. For more information, visit randiward.com/about.
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Whipstitches
Seller: ZBK Books, Carlstadt, NJ, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: good. Fast & Free Shipping â" Good condition. It may show normal signs of use, such as light writing, highlighting, or library markings, but all pages are intact and the book is fully readable. A solid, complete copy that's ready to enjoy. Seller Inventory # ZWV.1941196241.G