Haiti Glass

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Winner of the 2015 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award

In her debut collection of verse and prose, Mose moves deftly between memories of growing up as a Haitian immigrant in the suburbs of Boston, to bearing witness to brutality and catastrophe, to intellectual, playful explorations of pop culture enigmas like Michael Jackson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Be it the presence of a skinhead on the subway, a newspaper account of unthinkable atrocity, or the 'noose loosened to necklace' of desire, the cut of Haiti Glass lays bare a world of resistance and survival, mourning and lust, need and process, triumph and prayer.

Lenelle Mose is an award-winning poet, playwright, essayist and internationally touring performance artist. She creates jazz-infused, hip-hop bred, politicized texts about identity, memory and magic. Her poems and essays are featured in several anthologies, including: Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists. Her writing has also been published in the Utne Reader, Make/Shift, Left Turn, and numerous other magazines and journals. A current Huntington Theatre Company Playwriting Fellow, her plays include Expatriate, Merit and The Many Faces of Nia. She lives in Northampton, MA where she was the 2010-2012 Poet Laureate. Haiti Glass is her long-awaited first book and she is available for interview.

Praise for Haiti Glass:

"Haiti Glass is a magnificent collection of poetry and prose. Part mantra, part lamentation, part prayer, this incredible book puts us wholly in the presence of an extraordinary and brave talent, whose voice will linger in your heart and mind long after you read the last word of this book."Edwidge Danticat

"Very powerful poetry and prose. The spoken word cadence to many of the poems works really well on the page. Mose takes up the complexities of Haitian culture, the immigrant experience, sexuality and gender, and bearing witness. Highly recommended."Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State

"With a bold, unblinking eye, Lenelle Mose shows us the tragic yet beautiful world in which we live and challenges us not to turn away, but to turn towards with hope, compassion, and love. With all my heart, I thank her for writing these poems."Lesla Newman, author of October Mourning, A Song for Matthew Shepard

"Haiti Glass is a book fierce with ambition: make the reader feel Haiti, make the reader think Haiti, make the reader understand Haiti. Lenelle Moise's poems render the abstract- policy, disaster, history, diaspora- specific. Her words make the political not just personal, but corporeal: the beautiful system of the human body as canvas and subject, perfect in all its attendant complications and complexity, and still ruled, undeniably, by a warm, beating heart."Erin McKeown, musician

"The year 2014 will be hard pressed to give us a more powerful debut poetry collection than Lenelle Mose's Haiti Glass This is the rare book of poetry that makes one pause while reading, look up from the page, whistle low."Courtney Gillette, Lambda Literary Review

Praise for Lenelle Mose:

"Lenelle Mose brings fierce passion."New York Times

"Piercing, covering territory both intimate and political . . . vivid and powerful."Curve Magazine

"See Mose push stories from her mouth like it might save your life."The Root

Reviews

Praise for Haiti Glass: "Haiti Glass is a magnificent collection of poetry and prose. Part mantra, part lamentation, part prayer, this incredible book puts us wholly in the presence of an extraordinary and brave talent, whose voice will linger in your heart and mind long after you read the last word of this book. "-Edwidge Danticat "Very powerful poetry and prose. The spoken word cadence to many of the poems works really well on the page. Moise takes up the complexities of Haitian culture, the immigrant experience, sexuality and gender, and bearing witness. Highly recommended."-Roxane Gay "With a bold, unblinking eye, Lenelle Moise shows us the tragic yet beautiful world in which we live and challenges us not to turn away, but to turn towards with hope, compassion, and love. With all my heart, I thank her for writing these poems."-Leslea Newman, author of October Mourning, A Song for Matthew Shepard "The year 2014 will be hard pressed to give us a more powerful debut poetry collection than Lenelle Moise's Haiti Glass... This is the rare book of poetry that makes one pause while reading, look up from the page, whistle low."--Courtney Gillette, Lambda Literary Review "Hard to believe then that this is [Moise's] first book, which captures her passionate live performance in a way one can linger a little longer and study a little more closely her precisely chosen words. Moise's poems range from memories of childhood growing up in Haiti and American, to stories from her homeland marked by the atrocities of abject poverty and environmental disaster. Moise's work is always self-reflective, political and personal navigating the hurdles faced by black and brown immigrants in a promised land full of gated privilege. Her verse investigates the underbelly of family and society looking starkly at sexuality, violence and hope as it confronts despair."-Grace Moon, Velvetpark

Author Bio

Lenelle Moise is an award-winning poet, playwright, essayist and internationally touring performance artist. She creates jazz-infused, hip-hop bred, politicized texts about identity, memory and magic. Her poems and essays are featured in several anthologies, including: Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists. Her writing has also been published in the Utne Reader, Make/Shift, Left Turn, and numerous other magazines and journals. A current Huntington Theatre Company Playwriting Fellow, her plays include Expatriate, Merit and The Many Faces of Nia. She lives in Northampton, MA where she was the 2010-2012 Poet Laureate. Haiti Glass is her long-awaited first book.