Wet Collection

Joni Tevis

ISBN 10: 1571313168 / ISBN 13: 9781571313164

Published by Milkweed Editions October 2012, 2012

About this Item

Very slight curl to cover.

Seller Inventory # 333796

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wet Collection
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions October 2012
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1571313168
• ISBN 13: 9781571313164
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science::Natural History

About this title

Synopsis

A stunning, intricate collection of forty lyric essays juxtaposing natural history, ancient texts, folk heroes, and found objects.

Using such models as Joseph Cornell’s box constructions, crazy quilts, and specimen displays, Joni Tevis places fragments in relationship to each other in order to puzzle out lost histories, particularly those of women. Navigating the peril and excitement of an outward journey complicated by an inward longing for home, The Wet Collection follows Tevis through several adventures—one comical and stirring essay details her summer spent working as a cemetery salesman; another tells of her unmistakable horror at having to dress up like a beaver when working as a park ranger. Still others read like meditations in the style of Anne Carson, or a young Annie Dillard, and all of them are cast in the light of Tevis’s Southern upbringing.

Written with a poet’s lyricism, a scientist’s precision, and a theologian’s understanding of the world as it shifts around us, The Wet Collection is an exciting and distinctive collection.

About the Author

Joni Tevis is originally from Easley, South Carolina. Formerly an Edelstein-Keller Fellow at the University of Minnesota, she received her PhD from the University of Houston. She currently teaches literature and creative writing at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Her essays have appeared in Orion, Oxford American, Diagram, and elsewhere. Her first book, The Wet Collection (Milkweed Editions 2007), was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award.