Poems that ask an urgent question: how might a white friend write in protest of intimate Black death without becoming complicit in the commodification of Black trauma?

Phantom Number listens for an absent voice. To survive and answer to her best friend and fellow poet April Freely’s death, Spring Ulmer rips meaning apart in her poems, then repairs it, only to rip it up again. Words bend, meaning shifts—abstraction a tool Ulmer wields to better get at the question at the heart of Phantom Number: How might a white friend write in protest of intimate Black death at a time when the push is to write Black joy as antidote to the commodification of Black trauma? Ulmer understands her position is suspect yet cannot shirk her love or rage. Ulmer asks the reader to do the work or else. Her abstracted poems vibrate, emotion emerging from a poem made rag. Ulmer’s abecedarium long form holds these fragments, inviting lines into an order of alliteration and words into an otherwise coherence, a belonging that has nothing to do with their origin. Phantom Number finds in abstraction a radical wail.

About the Author

Spring Ulmer is the author of Benjamin’s Spectacles, The Age of Virtual Reproduction, and Bestiality of the Involved. She lives in upstate New York with her son.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Store Description

Visit Seller's Storefront

Seller's business information

Schwabe Books, Inc. DBA Books From California
51 W. Easy St., Simi Valley, CA, 93065, U.S.A.

Sale & Shipping Terms

Terms of Sale

Refunds Offered Within 10 days of order.

Greg Schwabe
Books From California
51 W. Easy St
Simi Valley, CA. 93065

Fax # 805-582-9513
For questions, please email at
abesales@booksfromca.com

Shipping Terms

Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.

Shipping rates within U.S.A.

Shipping rates within U.S.A.
Order quantity	5 to 14 business days	3 to 6 business days
First item	US$ 4.99	US$ 6.95

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.