Poetry. Matthew Rohrer's RISE UP turns wide eyes and lyric wit toward the requirements of fatherhood, citizenship, and romantic love. Approaching pleasure and terror with the same searching and determined curiosity, RISE UP traverses political, natural, and domestic landscapes with gentle agility. From the poem "Four Romantic Poets:" "Perpetual Halloween. / The Aztec people. / Horror & death. / A man walking down the street. / A man looking intently at a woman. / And running into a fire hydrant. / And crumpling."

Author City: BROOKLYN, NY USA

Matthew Rohrer is the author of A Hummock in the Malookas (which won the 1994 National Poetry Series Open Competition), SATELLITE, A GREEN LIGHT (shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin International Poetry Prize), RISE UP, A PLATE OF CHICKEN, and DESTROYER AND PRESERVER. With Joshua Beckman he wrote NICE HAT. THANKS. and recorded the audio CD ADVENTURES WHILE PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF BEAUTY. He's appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing, has been awarded the Avery Hopwood Prize for poetry and a Pushcart Prize, and has been widely anthologized. A chapbook-length action/adventure poem They All Seemed Asleep was published by Octopus Books in 2008. He teaches in the creative writing program at NYU and lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews and Other Links
http://www.bigcitylit.com/bigcitylit.php?inc=spring07/reviews/rohrer
http://coldfrontmag.com/reviews/rise-up