Keats Is Not the Problem

This book continues a conversation between Brett Evans and Chris Shipman that was begun at a shared reading in Vicksburg, Mississippi. "We hope to capture the immediacy of an intimate conversation spreading beyond ourselves. It's about city living in these demesnes, this American circumstance, this allover sinking into the Ocean. It's shallow and deep, silly-antic and meaningful, with (we dearly hope) enough rough bling in the beadwork to make it also pretty and fun. Please take it in and share with us what we need to do to be better poets and better human beings."

Keats moves from grief to hope, horror to hilarity, subtle subversion to guerrilla mischief, without ever losing Evans' and Shipman's trademark collaborative cool. How do they make being utterly original look not only Easy but Big? These poems are salve for a demoralized world, and they belong to the canon the way art belongs to life.  Anything else is ersatz.
-Amber Qureshi, Gadfly

EvansShipman have merged to form a durable romantic monster with one clear voice, scarifying at times as poetic monsters should be, but also amiable amidst the ruins of New Orleans. In this "Land of the Living" ouija is a verb and cockroaches with fuzzball sidecars avert a death sentence by mercy of a vibrant line. Among "the monsters/ who pass for boring citizens" ChrisBrett's monster book of wit & wisdom rolls down Almonaster Boulevard barely averting a lucrative accident with Morris Bart's Bag of Donuts amid all the "fucking folly of man."  The unreal surrealism of New Orleans has found its double mouth and quadruple ear so let's dance "losing dog" while we still all have four legs.
-Rodger Kamenetz, author of To Die Next To You

EvansShipmann have merged to form a durable romantic monster with one big clear voice, scarifying at times as poetic monsters should be, but also amiable amidst the ruins of New Orleans. In this "Land of the Living" ouija is a verb and cockroaches with fuzzball sidecars avert an open death sentence by pure mercy of a vibrant line. Among "the monsters / who pass for boring citizens" ChrisBrett's monster book of wit & wisdom rolls down Almonaster Boulevard barely averting a lucrative accident with Morris Bart's Bag of Donuts amid all the "fucking folly of man." The unreal surrealism of New Orleans has found its double mouth and quadruple ear so let's dance "losing dog" while we still all have four legs.

EvansShipmann have merged to form a durable romantic monster with one big clear voice, scarifying at times as poetic monsters should be, but also amiable amidst the ruins of New Orleans. In this "Land of the Living" ouija is a verb and cockroaches with fuzzball sidecars avert an open death sentence by pure mercy of a vibrant line. Among "the monsters / who pass for boring citizens" ChrisBrett's monster book of wit & wisdom rolls down Almonaster Boulevard barely averting a lucrative accident with Morris Bart's Bag of Donuts amid all the "fucking folly of man." The unreal surrealism of New Orleans has found its double mouth and quadruple ear so let's dance "losing dog" while we still all have four legs.