Description
Poetry. "'I know as much as I know,' Baumann writes, 'and still get out of bed.' And what trauma survivor has not marveled at this exact triumph? THORNWORK is a rigorous examination of the abundant hunger of both body and psyche to survive. This generous work confronts our inadequacies: 'We have tried you, language, but you have not been enough,' and nurtures even our most imperceptible efforts: 'I have almost enough courage to keep walking myself home,' offering a realistic portrait of the untidy endeavor to persevere."—Jeanann Verlee
"THORNWORK sings to the soft sleeping animal at the center of us all, and shows us that to love wrongly is still to love. It's a eulogy for the former self, a prayer, a ghost story. This is an urgent, spell-binding book." —Meg Freitag
"Ruth Baumann's THORNBROOK is painted with vertiginous desires, 'I wake up how a thief wakes up, one want at a time.' These poems explore what happens when we harm for or are harmed by that which we desire—'god is not a pitcher plant / It's us humans that eat each other.' Baumann leads us into a world that is both familiar and foggy, both lonely and suffocating, a world where 'Life fidgets everywhere.' It isn't Baumann's job to lead us back out—she is here to tell us what's at stake, she is here to show us the 'new angles.' Come in and have a look around. 'Make a sudden noise. See which animals in us come out.'"—Paige Lewis
Author Bio
Ruth Baumann is the author of THORNWORK (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), PARSE (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), these tornadoes (Dancing Girl Press, 2018), A Thousand Ars Poeticas (Sixth Finch, 2018), RETRIBUTION BINARY (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), wildcold (Slash Pines Press, 2016) and I'll Love You Forever & Other Temporary Valentines (Salt Hill, 2015). Her poems have been published in Colorado Review, Sonora Review, Sycamore Review, The Journal, Third Coast & others. She received an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in 2014. She holds an MFA from the University of Memphis & is a PhD candidate at Florida State University. Additionally, she is former Managing Editor of The Pinch literary journal, and also was Poetry Editor, Senior Poetry Editor & Assistant Managing Editor of the journal. She has taught both composition classes and creative writing workshops. She currently edits Nightjar Review with Tara Mae Mulroy.
Author City: TALLAHASSEE, FL USA