STATE OF BLESSED GLUTTONY - Softcover

Thomas, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1888996811 ISBN 13: 9781888996814

Publisher: Red Hen Press, 2004

Synopsis

“This is an impressive first book full of meaty poems and wry surprises. Even the so called literary poems―‘Circe,’ ‘To Anna Karenina,’ ‘Note’―are substantive and fresh. Thomas’s reach is broad and daring, from the shtetls of her forebears to the abuses of today’s petrochemical industry. Mourning the murdered Lithuanian Jews of the Holocaust and celebrating the cholesterol-rich menu of the River Run café intercut with local scandals are made to seem appropriate apposites in this lively collection.”

―Maxine Kumin

“This delightful―and long overdue―collection of poems shows Susan Thomas at her delicious best: ‘So many ways / to eat chicken: / fricasseed and boiled / sautéed with herbs and shallots / roasted, stuffed with mushrooms . . .’ Hard not to make a culinary comparison about the range and variety of these poems―poems about history, family history, landscape, myth, fairy tale; the whole world is here to be savored and enjoyed. A state of blessed gluttony―that’s how I felt after reading this debut collection. Now I’m greedy for more.”

―Jane Shore

“Perhaps it is, as she says, ‘necessity fueled by / the impossible,’ that makes State of Blessed Gluttony such a superb experience of a ravenous imagination. Here, after all, we find art, fairy tales, history, a murdered girl, King Kong, Penelope, mad plumbers, ghosts, even objects themselves in a dialogue that tells us they exist now, in the fabulous world created by Susan Thomas’s terrific vision. Which is to say that this is a book that redefines our own world, and so ourselves, enrichng us with its particulars, broadening us its vision, so that, like her, we find a way to ‘refuse to be a blur / on desire’s muffled horizion.’”

―Richard Jackson

About this title

About the Author:

Susan Thomas has published stories, poems, and translations in many literary journals and anthologies. State of Blessed Gluttony (Red Hen 2004) was the winner of the 2002 Benjamin Saltman Prize for Poetry, in early 2004. Her chapbook, The Hand Waves Goodbye, was published by Main Street Rag in 2002. She is this year's winner of the Iowa Poetry Award from the Iowa Review and the Ann Stanford Prize from University of Southern California. She lives in Marshfield, Vermont, and New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Hen Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1888996811
• ISBN 13: 9781888996814
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80