Philomel, Whose Reputation Precedes Her

Philomel, Whose Reputation Precedes Her measures the distance between a poetic form and a form to fill out. Stanza by stanza, the figure of Philomela asks you to remember, not what happened, but who she is. These poems are full of holes: the failures of narrative, the wounded vagina and mouth of the myth, the gaps that refuse to close between feminist action and poetic tradition. In the lineage of H.D.'s Helen in Egypt, and with a nod to Sylvia Plath, Philomela glances side-eye, a self beyond the body and beyond tradition, always two birds in the bush whatever you might hold in your hand.

Praise for Philomel, Whose Reputation Precedes Her

There is so much to admire about Philomel, Whose Reputation Precedes Her: the invented form, which is both birdsong and trauma; the balance of irony and intimacy; the images, some of which are so precise and strange I think I will never forget them; the brilliant, stop-you-in-your-tracks lines, not infrequent, like this: "Whether you're living or not often comes down to figurative language."

- Ross Gay, Author of Against Which & Be Holding

I want to walk the earth and always have Ryle's words in my ear. Listen to this: "the hummingbird, so named for the accident/of his body," "what is a poem but running/as fast as I can," and "imagine puberty with feathers and your eye swelling/like a berry under pressure." Who else can spin this way? The book will take you into "some days it's like I hadn't any skin on at all" but it will also show you "a dozen rabbits falling from the sky." Essential, stunning, breathtaking, unique. Everyone must read this book.

- Kelly Ritter, author of A Thousand Wings, Ghost Act, and Just After