Description: These hybrid "proems" attempt to combine the spaciousness of prose with the compression of poetry. In traveling into intertwined spaces of personal geography, memory, emotion, and loss, as well as wild nature, each piece surrounds its lyrical moment in a context of details, imaginings, and resonances to express its dramatic occasion.
Brief description: Hayley Mitchell Haugen holds a Ph.D. in 20th Century American Literature from Ohio University and an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington. She is currently Professor of English at Ohio University Southern, where she teaches courses in composition, American literature, and creative writing. Her chapbook What the Grimm Girl Looks Forward To appears from Finishing Line Press (2016), and poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Rattle, Slant, Spillway, Chiron Review, Verse Virtual and many other journals. Light & Shadow, Shadow & Light from Main Street Rag Publishing Company (2018) is her first full-length collection.
Review Quotes:
In "The Year Dylan Went Electric" from Up Late Reading Birds of America by Robert DeMott, we are asked to "Ride that beast, bucko: no more Mister Nice Guy for you, not then anyway in full fret and frenzied throb of your bully machine, never again let sleeping dogs lie. Not you. Not ever." DeMott's poems unbury the singular in the Many--thus the allusion to Audubon whose work involved the sacrifice of subject-birds. These poems don't go easy on a world we prize for its winged bodying of Spirit. It is timely, commanding work for which we should be grateful. --Roy Bentley finalist for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize for Walking with Eve in the Loved City
With a generous formal genius, in a limpid voice that never bullies but rather accompanies the reader like a swath of light on the living room floor, Robert DeMott gifts us a gorgeous new collection of revelatory, time-traversing poems that transcend fad or trend. Each perfectly crafted 'descent' is a luminous moment we fall through but DeMott's sure hands are always there to catch us. These poems dedicate every word, every sacred pore, to what is here, and in so doing serve as lasting reminders that the present is, as Gerald Vizenor said, "a wild season, not a ruse." --Chris Dombrowski author of Body of Water and Ragged Anthem
Robert DeMott is a master of compression and lucidity, so I'm not surprised that his new collection resonates with such power. It is a brilliant, passionate, and deeply considered reminder to us to give our full attention to the world and to take a stand against the forces of greed that would destroy it. It is up to us, after all, to decide if "nothing matters, or everything does." --Jerry Dennis author of The Windward Shore and A Place on the Water Robert
DeMott's Up Late Reading Birds of America displays a deep caring for the world and its countless wonders, whether animal, mineral, firefly, or the unexpected movement of clouds in an autumn sky. DeMott's habit of seeing deeply rewards us on every page, offering up evocative, passionate moments from a well-considered life. You will stay up late, too, savoring this book of generosity and remarkable beauty. --Dinty W. Moore Director of Creative Writing, Ohio University, and Editor of Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction.