The Book of Goodbyes

(Paperback)

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WINNER OF THE 2013 JAMES LAUGHLIN AWARDWinner of the 2013 Isabella Gardner Poetry AwardThe "Los Angeles Times" described Jillian Weise's debut poetry collection as "a fearless dissection of the taboo and the hidden." In this second collection she forwards her bold, sexy poetics by chronicling an affair with a man she names "Big Logos." These poems throw into question sex, the law, identity, sentiment, and power, shifting between lyric and narrative, hyper-realism and magical realism, fact and fiction.I've Been Waiting All Night"I reckon you were asleep with your girlbefore the phone rang. Make something up.""I've been waiting all night to tell youabout the couple in post-War France, ""the woman fresh in her graveand the man who didn't like his mistress dead, ""no sir, and so exhumed her, to the dismayof his wife, who had him arrested""for the stink he made.She was reburied, returned to the dead.""After jail, he dug her up to fuck again.Attached suction cups and crafted""a wig from a broom. You can go now.I'm more in the mood than you're used to."Jillian Weise--an above-the-knee amputee with a computerized prosthetic--identifies as a cyborg and has discussed the identity in essays for the "New York Times" and "Drunken Boat." Her books include "The Amputee's Guide to Sex" (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and "The Colony" (Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press, 2010). She is an assistant professor at Clemson University, a contributing editor at the "South Carolina Review," and co-director of the Annual Clemson Literary Festival.

Reviews

"[The Book of Goodbyes]...is punctuated with an intriguing dip into magic realism." --Charleston City Paper "...a smart and savvy ode to absences--of a lover, of a self, and of a part of the self, literal and figurative ... This is a brilliant book ultimately about connection." --Publishers Weekly *Starred* Review "This book reminds us that the pain of love and loss, in the hands of a powerful wordsmith such as Weise, might just morph into passion, thrill, strength. And that love-suffering can bring us ever closer to lovability because through it we learn to connect, renew, transform." -Brenda Shaughnessy, The Academy of American Poets "...unflinching and profoundly relevant poetry ... a take on alienation that implicitly indicts all of us." -Huffington Post "These fierce, hip, heartbreaking love poems call out to a lover who can't be lived with or without. They're humorous, odd, and full of all the unreasonable truth of love. This book is the real thing." -Publishers Weekly "Book of Goodbyes is edgy" and "in-your face." -Library Journal "Jillian Weise ... is a force of nature. This collection follows up her debut, The Amputee's Guide to Sex, with what happens when sex becomes love that just won't go away -- no matter how unsuitable the beloved seems to be. This is love poetry for the 21st century: hot, hip and heart-rending." -Craig Morgan Teicher

Author Bio

Jillian Weise publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She is the author of The Amputee's Guide to Sex, The Colony, and The Book of Goodbyes, winner of the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times and Tin House. Weise has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Fulbright Program, the Sewanee Writers Conference and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University.