Poetry. National Book Award finalist Ben Lerner turns to science once again for his guiding metaphor. "Mean free path" is the average distance a particle travels before colliding with another particle. The poems in Lerner's third collection are full of layered collisions—repetitions, fragmentations, stutters, re-combinations—that track how language threatens to break up or change course under the emotional pressures of the utterance. And then there's the larger collision of love, and while Lerner questions whether love poems are even possible, he composes a gorgeous, symphonic, and complicated one.
Author Hometown: BROOKLYN, NY USA
About the author: Ben Lerner is the author of the novel LEAVING THE ATOCHA STATION (Coffee House Press, 2011) and three books of poetry: MEAN FREE PATH (Copper Canyon Press, 2010); ANGLE OF YAW (Copper Canyon Press, 2006), named a finalist for the National Book Award for his second book; and THE LICHTENBERG FIGURES (Copper Canyon Press, 2004). Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979, he holds a BA in political science and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University and teaches at Brooklyn College. In 2011 Lerner became the first American to win the Preis der Stadt Münster für Internationale Poesie.
Reviews:
David Gorin in Jacket
Daniel E. Pritchard @ The Critical Flame
Jeff T. Johnson @ FANZINE
Karla Kelsey at The Constant Critic
Kristen Evans in Rain Taxi
Brian Foley's Best Poetry Books of 2010 @ No Tell Motel Poetry Blog
"Dedication" @ Poetry Society of America
One of Boston Review poetry editor Timothy Donnelly's six favorite poetry books of 2010
Publishers Weekly starred review
Christopher Schmidt @ Boston Review
The Believer Magazine Readers' Top Twenty Favorite Poetry Books Published in 2010
Daniel E. Pritchard @ The Critical Flame
