Operating Systems

Poetry. This expansive, ambitious collection by Joe Pan further exemplifies his talent for blending genres and pushing formally experimental narratives and lyrics into a wild array of thought-provoking poetry. From the familial to the fantastical to the socially political, Pan's maximalist style doesn't miss much, earning this collection its place among the most anticipated books of 2019. Highlighted by "Ode to the MQ-9 Reaper," a long poem about drone warfare already taught in classrooms around the countryâ€"Operating Systems approaches our complicated and shifting histories with empathy and an eye for the absurd.

"'I just discovered this form yesterday,' Pan writes, earlier in the book, but it applies best to the sprawling formless form of this hulking, brilliant anthem, this 'Bohemian Rhapsody' of a poem. ['Ode to the MQ-9 Reaper'] goes on to become a way of addressing Pan's own younger self, a personified lost innocence, and the Reaper becomes a figure of national tragedy, a character really not so different from the tall hooded farmer for which it was named. While praising it as poetry, and Pan as a poet, I want to scream that 'Ode to the MQ-9 Reaper' is not just a poemâ€"it's a memoir and an essay and a white paper about black hearts and black death. It's a sermon, and a polemic, and a treatise, and an ars poetica, and if you think I'm overselling it, then just go and read it, and see for yourself. I dare you."â€"JC Hallman, Brooklyn Rail

"It's uncomfortable to struggle with ['Ode to the MQ-9 Reaper's] ethical dilemmas. Pan reminds us we are complicit in the Reaper's exploits without shying away from the barriers to avoiding culpability...The collection's diversity is also a strength and most readers will find something to challenge or surprise them."â€"Eric Aldrich, Heavy Feather Review

Joe Pan is the author of five poetry collections: Operating Systems (Spork Press, 2019), The Art Is a Lonely Hunter, Soffritto, Hi c cu ps, and Autobiomythography & Gallery, and served as co-editor of the best-selling Brooklyn Poets Anthology. His work has appeared in such venues as the Boston Review, Hyperallergic, The New York Times, and The Philadelphia Review of Books. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Brooklyn Arts Press, an independent publishing house honored in 2016 with a National Book Award win in Poetry, as well as serving as the publisher of Augury Books, and is the founder of the services-oriented activist group Brooklyn Artists Helping.