Synopsis
“One person fills eternity,” writes Bill Yarrow in his new book Against Prompts. By turns hilarious, argumentative, ekphrastic, surreal, and sublime, the volume itself seems to fill eternity, deploying all the protean rhetorical resources of poetry as an art—which would make Yarrow himself a kind of wisecracking Proteus, as nimble and variable as the god himself. Like Georges Perec or Borges before him, Yarrow invites his readers to ask the big questions about poetry, indeed creativity, in general: what is it? and how can it achieve the fullness of freedom? In the provocative essay that names and closes the book, Yarrow offers his answer, vigorously defending the autonomy of the imagination against prompts, “the cancer of creativity.” Agree or disagree, Yarrow’s work multiplies the possibilities of the art, radically so: like Elizabeth Bishop's sandpiper, one contemplates eternity in this book. —Toby Altman, author of Arcadia, Indiana With Against Prompts, Bill Yarrow presents all the reasons this fiction writer starts her mornings with poetry. Nowhere else can one absorb such unabashed lust for language, passion for playfulness, and a yen for experimentation than in these meaty and irresistible pages. In his signature style that juxtaposes the accessible and erudite, Yarrow showcases his extensive range with poems formal and form defiant, found and discovered, nostalgic and provocative, urgent and cool. Prepare to play Boggle with Robert Lowell's mind, laugh out loud at "Free Blurbs," get drunk on "Poets Who Thrum," love the living heck out of "Liking in The Scarlet Letter," then fire up your inner bard by repurposing his lines into a cut-up of your own—or better yet, a madcap Mad-libs villanelle. —Sara Lippmann, author of Doll Palace: Stories I don’t like blurbs. Piled on the back of a book, they cut the designer’s space in half and make me feel like I’m trapped on a Missouri interstate wishing I could tear the damn billboards down and enjoy the scenery. I accepted Bill’s prompt to blurb Against Prompts as a public service, plotting to occupy space that might otherwise be filled with generic praise from someone who hadn’t read the book. I have. You should. Start with the manifesto, ignore the trigger warning, and play it backwards like heavy metal on vinyl. If you weren’t wasting time here, you could be halfway through the book’s eightfold path, contemplating the Renaissance face of Edith Sitwell and closing in on the title page. You might have already discovered the hidden message. It’s not too late. Go. Now. Let a hundred flowers bloom. —Steven Schroeder, Virtual Artists Ccollective Bill Yarrow is a proponent—and practitioner—of curiosity, creativity and originality in all he does. His poems are powerful testaments to his belief that every person’s experience is valuable and unique, that every person's life song should be heard. Against Prompts is a master class in verse. This is the only text a creative writing student needs. —Micha Lev, author of Yordim
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