Deniability

Witte, George

ISBN 10: 1932535195 / ISBN 13: 9781932535198

Published by Orchises Pr, 2009

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Deniability
• Publisher: Orchises Pr
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1932535195
• ISBN 13: 9781932535198
• Binding: perfect
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Set in our post 9/11 climate of deceit and mutual suspicion, the poems in Deniability utilize the vocabularies of bureaucracy and religion, exploring how the former co-opts the ancient latter, to such consequential effect.

Wielding clichés, repurposed words, rootless acronyms, and the persuasive lingo of expertise, these poems betray or undermine their speakers' confidence. Civil networks erode with mutual suspicion; surveillance holds neighbors at one remove. One woman steels herself for mortal crisis; commuters walk, ride, and pray in heightened states of awareness; a SEAL team is ambushed, an official blows smoke around a troubling admission, and a child asks three questions on what might be the last day of her life.

With wit and formal acuity balanced by emotion, Deniability considers what we lose when we abdicate the power of language, and so surrender to the seductive language of power.

About the Author

George Witte is the author of four collections of poems: An Abundance of Caution, Does She Have a Name?, Deniability, and The Apparitioners.  His poems have been published in a range of journals and anthologized in The Best American Poetry, Old Flame, Rabbit Ears, and The Doll Collection.  He received Poetry magazine's Frederick Bock prize, as well as a fellowship from the New Jersey Council for the Arts.  The editor in chief of St. Martin's Press, he lives with his family in Ridgewood, New Jersey.