Risk

From the co-publisher of acclaimed poetry press Omnidawn, Risk engages directly with limitations, both those that structure the literal form of the poems and literary form and those that are both unavoidable and self-inflicted.

In Risk, award-winning poet Rusty Morrison uses a constraining form of seven-syllable segments with breaks between to explore questions of limitation. In these poems, she is not just writing about constraints, but living inside and seeing how to manage them. In this way, the speaker of these poems actively experiences limitations as event, not aftermath. 

Drawing on the idea of philosopher and critic Hélène Cixous who writes that "the border makes up the homeland, it prohibits and gives passage in the same stroke," in Risk Morrison aims where the border and framings she uses offer understanding and where boundaries should be pushed against and passed beyond, as frightening as that might be.

Rusty Morrison is the author of five books: After Urgency (winner of Tupelo's Dorset Prize), the true keeps calm biding its story (winner of the Ahsahta's Sawtooth Prize, James Laughlin Award, N.California Book Award, and DiCastagnola Award), Beyond the Chainlink (finalist for the NCIB Award & NCB Award), Whethering (winner of the 2004 Colorado Prize for Poetry from the Colorado State Center of Literary Publishing), and Book Of the Given. She's a recipient of fellowships from Civitella Ranieri, UC Berkeley ARC's Poetry & the Senses Program, and others. She teaches, gives writing consultations, and co-publishes Omnidawn. She lives in Richmond, CA.