Poetry. What is the hermit? A crab? A card drawn from a tarot deck? Sage, lunatic, scholar, mad scientist, philosopher or monk? A rebel or recluse, a wandering samurai, a stranger in an even stranger land, an immigrant, an exile, a tourist, a hero or anti-hero? Do hermits live apart from others or alone among others like them? Do they abide in the remote landscapes of legends or in our modern-day cities? Can a woman be a hermit? Who is not a hermit? In this third collection of poems by Laura Solomon, the Hermit embodies the complicated search for simplicity and shared solitude both at home and abroad. These poems explore the struggle to articulate a precision in language, people, places, and emotions by placing the poet at the heart of a monomyth. This is a gut-wrenching collection that meditates on truth, the unconscious, and the sacrifices of love.
Author City: Verona ITA
Laura Solomon was born in 1976 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her books include BIVOUAC (Slope Editions, 2002), BLUE AND RED THINGS (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2007), and THE HERMIT (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011). Other publications include a chapbook, Letters by Which Sisters Will Know Brothers, (Katalanché Press, 2005) and Haiku des Pierres/Haiku of Stones by Jacques Poullaoueq, a translation from the French with Sika Fakambi (Editions Apogée, 2006). Her poetry has been included in the anthology Poets on Painters (Witchita State Press, 2007), has appeared in magazines across North America and Europe, and has been translated into ten languages. Most recently she has lived in Paris, Philadelphia, and Verona, Italy.
Reviews and Other Links
Lightsey Darst @ Bookslut
Gina Myers @ The Rumpus
Nate Pritts @ Boston Review
Marcus Myers @ NewPages
Seth Landman @ Jacket2