Poetry. In this surreal exposé of the human condition, Chad Sweeney transforms intangible space into a poetic playground. Poems unveil secret worlds, ecstatically reinventing archetypes for the American landscape. This book charismatically delights in the ordinary, grounding readers in urgency balanced by wonder. "Chad Sweeney's poems are matryoshka dolls of imagination: strangeness inside longing inside charm. Relentlessly figurative, they read as dreamscapes and translations: if the human soul has peripheral vision, these poems are what it sees. And gentleness, gentleness abounds here and makes the point of fancy to unite, to bring one thing beside another and build a home of their touch"—Bob Hicok.
Author City: KALAMAZOO, MI USA
Chad Sweeney was born in Norman, Oklahoma. He is the author of PARABLE OF HIDE AND SEEK (Alice James Books, 2010), ARRANGING THE BLAZE (Anhinga Press, 2009), AN ARCHITECTURE (BlazeVOX, 2007), and A Mirror to Shatter the Hammer (Tarpaulin Sky, 2006). Chosen for Best American Poetry 2008 by Charles Wright, Sweeney's work has appeared in journals such as Barrow Street, Crazyhorse, NEW AMERICAN WRITING, Verse, Colorado Review, Hunger Mountain, Black Warrior Review, Passages North, RUNES, and American Letters & Commentary. He edits Parthenon West Review with David Holler, and is the editor of Days I MOVED THROUGH ORDINARY SOUNDS (City Lights, 2009), an anthology of poetry, fiction and memoir by the teaching artists of the national WritersCorps. With Mojdeh Marashi, Sweeney translated a book of Iranian poetry, Arghavaan, Selected Poems of H.E. Sayeh, for which he was awarded a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA in poetry from San Francisco State University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in literature/poetry at Western Michigan University, where he teaches creative writing and serves as assistant editor for New Issues Press. He lives in Kalamazoo with his wife, poet Jennifer Kochanek Sweeney.
Reviews and Other Links
author site
James Benton @ Rattle
Kate Angus @ Coldfront
Alissa Fleck @ NewPages
Rick Marlatt @ Gently Read Literature
T. C. Marshall @ Galatea Resurrects