Description
Poetry. SCORPYN ODES explores the iconic history of the scorpion in literature and mythology, as animal and constellation, demon, poison and guardian. What may be learned from a species with a four-hundred-million year history? How might evolutionary intelligence be a lens through which to consider various cultural maladies? Verse odes are interspersed with prose departures, and muse upon the many literal and metaphorical connotations of leaving. What must we celebrate, and from what must we depart in order to reaffirm a more sustainable humanity? What is the human equivalent to molting? What happens when disintegration of landscape becomes internalized? What depths of loss do we traverse in a time when toxicity challenges our ability to see our surroundings? How to build a house of hope with the potency to counter symptomatic forgetfulness? This work explores the possibility of "departure" as locomotion or energy source, travel and incantatory momentum.
Author Bio
Laynie Browne is a poet, prose writer, teacher and editor. She is author of fourteen collections of poems and four books of fiction. Recent publications include TRANSLATION OF THE LILIES BACK INTO LISTS (forthcoming May 2022, Wave Books), IN GARMENTS WORN BY LINDENS; a novel, PERIODIC COMPANIONS; and a book of short fiction, THE BOOK OF MOMENTS. Her poetry has been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, and Catalan. She co-edited the anthology I'LL DROWN MY BOOK: CONCEPTUAL WRITING BY WOMEN (Les Figues Press, 2013) and edited the anthology A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on The Poet's Novel (Nightboat, 2020). Honors and awards include a Pew Fellowship, the National Poetry Series Award for her collection THE SCENTED FOX (Wave Books, 2007), and the Contemporary Poetry Series Award for her collection Drawing of a Swan Before Memory (University of Georgia, 2005). She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Author City: WALLINGFORD, PA USA