French Lessons

Roberta Hatcher

ISBN 10: 1635340047 / ISBN 13: 9781635340044

Published by Finishing Line Press, 2016

About this Item

Seller Inventory # LU-9781635340044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: French Lessons
• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1635340047
• ISBN 13: 9781635340044
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 13.97W x 0.18H x 21.59D centimeters 13.97 centimeters width by 0.18 centimeters height by 21.59 centimeters depth
• Weight: 54 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This collection, the author's first, takes slippages in language as a starting point to explore gaps within the self, between the self and the world of others and everyday objects, as well as faultlines within the body politic. The encounter with a foreign tongue becomes an occasion for both loss of self and opening into otherness; the attempt to gain a hold on things by writing them down proves ominously fleeting. At turns playful and sober, French Lessons does not bring us Paris cityscapes or villages in Provence, but rather meditates on the lingering power of the foreign to challenge and transform the familiar.

About the Author

Roberta Hatcher's poetry has appeared in St. Petersburg Review, Main Street Rag, Comstock Review and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among others. She was a finalist for the Patricia Dobler Poetry Award and the Arkadii Dragomoshchenko Prize for innovative use of language in poetry. Her poem "French Lesson #3" was nominated for Best New Poets 2014. She holds a Ph.D. in French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has taught French language and francophone postcolonial studies at several universities. She has also worked variously as a bartender, waitress, forestry camp worker, cook, au pair, student tour operator and ESL tutor. She currently makes her home in Pittsburgh, PA.