Slight Return

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In her new collection, renowned publisher and poet Rebecca Wolff voyages in the myopia of American consumer consciousnesserotic regard, spiritual FOMO, gentrification, brandingwithout destination.

Labyrinthine in their paradoxical musings and incisive in their witty recriminations, these poems grapple with the hubris and dysmorphia of the soul. Wolff is a poet that is unafraid to be a querent, not only of sages (I only hang out with people / who are psychic / anything else is a / waste of precious / continuity) but of language itself (How else is one to know how to proceed / How is one to make a motion against / electric word life) InSlight Return, the journey is infinite and elusiveaspiring in the best way toward a point of diminishing returns and withholding any promise of a comfortable landing.

Reviews

"[Wolffs poems] are stylistic and tonal shapeshifters. Hip, contemplative, and dark and resistant to the hunky-dory, the New Agey, and the prescriptive, theyre unnerving, funny, and occasionally subversive."Bookforum

"Wolff's [poetry has] nervy, controlled lyric bursts....Nearing yet swerving from bathos, [she is a poet with] a gift for shrewd summings-up."Chicago Tribune

"In a space where "It all happens so fast/ ovulation, creation, cremation," a variety of poses, or figments, may seem all that is left. Wolff's poems manage to make embracing them seem like a genuine possibility."Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Rebecca Wolffis the author of five collections of poetry, one novel, and numerous pieces of occasional prose. Her first book,Manderley, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Robert Pinsky. Her second,Figment, was selected for the Barnard Women Poets Prize by Claudia Rankine and Eavan Boland. Her third,The King, was published by W. W. Norton in 2009.One Morningwas publishedby Wave Books in 2015.Slight Returnis out from Wave Books in the fall of 2022. Her novelThe Beginnerswas published by Riverhead in 2011. In 1998, Wolff founded the influential literary journalFence; in 2001 she founded Fence Books and launched The Constant Critic website. Wolff lives in Hudson, New York, where she has served on the City Council and works in community development, with an emphasis on affordable housing and green trades training.