WASHING A LANGUAGE

(Paperback)

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Description

"Laurel Ann Bogen is an admirable poet with a distinctive voice. In this fascinating book, again and again she transforms her moments of joy, the wounds she has suffered, into a mouth, speaking her terse and immaculate poems, and often, miraculously, breaking into song."

--Edward Field

Reviews

Laurel Ann Bogen is an admirable poet with a distinctive voice. In this fascinating book, again and again she transforms her moments of joy, the wounds she has suffered, into a mouth, speaking her terse and immaculate poems, and often, miraculously, breaking into song.

Edward Field

In Washing a Language, Laurel Ann Bogen makes an old poetry (political poetry, love poetry) new. If her themes are from the thrift store, this reader never noticedshe adds bleach and fabric softener, and carefully folds her poems so that theyre ready for sale at the fanciest boutique. Bogen unearths treasure in this book.

Denise Duhamel

Author Bio

Despite an award-winning 30-year career, Laurel Ann Bogenpoet, performance artist, teacher, author of ten books including Washing a Language (Red Hen Press, 2004) and The Last Girl in the Land of the Butterflies (Red Wind Books, 1996)might be mistaken for an overnight sensation. The arc of her writing career began during the 1970s, through years of harrowing confinement inside the back wards of psychiatric hospitals. She carved her way back to life through poetry and, along the way, has influenced decades of LA-based poets, students, lovers (and even non-lovers) of language with her unmistakable and unmistakably powerful voice. Bogen has taught in the UCLA Writers Extension Program since 1990 and is also a founding member of the celebrated poetry performance ensemble, Nearly Fatal Women. She lives in Los Angeles.