Description
Poetry. "Lesley Wheeler's new volume of poems, RADIOLAND, spellbinds with the gorgeous sounds of its poetry: 'Drag belly over gravel on a cave-lip / into the TV and sleep in it,' one poem opens. Note the insouciant forging of ancient and quotidian scenes, the modulation of vowels punctuated by v's: I'm hooked! Wheeler is, among other glories, a consummate formalist, but she is also profound in her exploration of the governing trope of this collection: the deeply human struggles in which families engage to be receptors and transmitters of love (the crisis brought to a head by the unforgiven father's death). In RADIOLAND's disturbed emissions and reception, we cannot always tell what's '[s]ignal and noise,' but at the borderland to the absolute, Wheeler is surefooted in her exploration of love's echoing 'parley' in the world."—Cynthia Hogue
Author Bio
Lesley Wheeler, Poetry Editor of Shenandoah, is the author of five poetry collections, including THE STATE SHE'S IN; The Receptionist and Other Tales, finalist for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award; and HETEROTOPIA, winner of the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize. Unbecoming, her first novel, appeared in 2020, and her most recent scholarly book is Voicing American Poetry: Sound and Performance from the 1920s to the Present. Her work has received support from the Fulbright Foundation, Bread Loaf, Sewanee Writers Workshop, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wheeler's poems and essays appear in Kenyon Review Online, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Guernica, and other journals. Find her on Instagram and Twitter as @LesleyMWheeler.
Author City: LEXINGTON, VA USA