University of Wisconsin Press, 2014 Paper: 978-0-299-29964-4 | eISBN: 978-0-299-29963-7 Library of Congress Classification PS3619.O73A6 2014 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Winner of the 2014 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Inspired by thrift store knit sleeves, punk rock record sleeves, and, of course, print book sleeves, Angela Sorby explores how the concrete world hails us in waves of color and sound. She asks implicitly, “What makes the sleeve wave? Is it the body or some force larger than the self?” As Sorby’s tough, ironic, and subtly political voice repeatedly insists, we apprehend, use, and release more energy than we can possibly control. This collection includes two main parts—one visual, one aural—flanking a central pastoral poem sung by Virgilian sheep. Meant to be read both silently and aloud, the poems in The Sleeve Waves meditate on how almost everything—like light and sound—comes to us in waves that break and vanish and yet continue.
Outstanding Achievement in Poetry Award, Wisconsin Library Association
Honorable Mention, Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award, Council of Wisconsin Writers
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Angela Sorby is an associate professor of English at Marquette University. She is the author of three books: Distance Learning: Poems; Schoolroom Poets: Childhood, Performance, and the Place of American Poetry; and Bird Skin Coat, winner of the 2009 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.
REVIEWS
“Sometimes, if you’re very patient and a little lucky, a set of truly original poems will jolt you upright again, and you will read their unexpected, eccentric turns, their mesmerizing content and cadence, with gratitude and amazement and feel so glad you’re still alive.”—Naomi Shihab Nye, Felix Pollak Prize judge
“Angela Sorby’s poems move quickly, yet they contain depths: ‘there’s a new world floating / behind the painting,’ as one says. If happiness lurks beneath sadness and vice versa, that’s the point: these supple, savvy poems say the world is richer than we know and infinitely more beautiful.”—David Kirby
“Has anyone written a funnier, more terrifying poem about Sylvia Plath than ‘Epistle’? Or caught the delicate complexities among generations better than ‘A Walk on the Ice’? From Seattle to Wisconsin to Hunan, these poems register the inscape and soundscape of a mind both ferocious and generous.”—Maureen McLane
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
I
Thrifting
Paradise, Wisconsin
A Is for Air
Sivka-Burka
Duck/Rabbit
Notes from a Northern State
A Walk across the Ice
The Thorne Rooms
Just Looking
Blush
Thirst
Watson and the Shark
The Schoolteachers
Ink
Doppelzüngig
Fall Forward, Spring Back
Fat
Sacred Grove
Go-Between
Sofia’s Stove
The Second Daguerreotype
Epistle
The Suburban Mysteries
The Sleeve Waves
II
Pastoral
III
Night Vision
Fallout
What Might Happen Might Not
Hard Bop
The Knit
Kochanski’s, Saturday Night
Stopping at the Joyce Kilmer Rest Area on a Snowy Evening
The Disappearances
Trance Music
Spill
Golden Spike
Close Shave
The Ghost of Meter
Petition
Wide Boulevard, Tiny Apartment
Boom Town
Blood Relative
Letter to Hugo from the Land of the Living
End of the Century
Nonsense
Flatland
Double Neighbor
Errand
Interstate
The Obstruction
Duct Tape
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Wisconsin Press, 2014 Paper: 978-0-299-29964-4 eISBN: 978-0-299-29963-7
Winner of the 2014 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Inspired by thrift store knit sleeves, punk rock record sleeves, and, of course, print book sleeves, Angela Sorby explores how the concrete world hails us in waves of color and sound. She asks implicitly, “What makes the sleeve wave? Is it the body or some force larger than the self?” As Sorby’s tough, ironic, and subtly political voice repeatedly insists, we apprehend, use, and release more energy than we can possibly control. This collection includes two main parts—one visual, one aural—flanking a central pastoral poem sung by Virgilian sheep. Meant to be read both silently and aloud, the poems in The Sleeve Waves meditate on how almost everything—like light and sound—comes to us in waves that break and vanish and yet continue.
Outstanding Achievement in Poetry Award, Wisconsin Library Association
Honorable Mention, Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award, Council of Wisconsin Writers
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Angela Sorby is an associate professor of English at Marquette University. She is the author of three books: Distance Learning: Poems; Schoolroom Poets: Childhood, Performance, and the Place of American Poetry; and Bird Skin Coat, winner of the 2009 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.
REVIEWS
“Sometimes, if you’re very patient and a little lucky, a set of truly original poems will jolt you upright again, and you will read their unexpected, eccentric turns, their mesmerizing content and cadence, with gratitude and amazement and feel so glad you’re still alive.”—Naomi Shihab Nye, Felix Pollak Prize judge
“Angela Sorby’s poems move quickly, yet they contain depths: ‘there’s a new world floating / behind the painting,’ as one says. If happiness lurks beneath sadness and vice versa, that’s the point: these supple, savvy poems say the world is richer than we know and infinitely more beautiful.”—David Kirby
“Has anyone written a funnier, more terrifying poem about Sylvia Plath than ‘Epistle’? Or caught the delicate complexities among generations better than ‘A Walk on the Ice’? From Seattle to Wisconsin to Hunan, these poems register the inscape and soundscape of a mind both ferocious and generous.”—Maureen McLane
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
I
Thrifting
Paradise, Wisconsin
A Is for Air
Sivka-Burka
Duck/Rabbit
Notes from a Northern State
A Walk across the Ice
The Thorne Rooms
Just Looking
Blush
Thirst
Watson and the Shark
The Schoolteachers
Ink
Doppelzüngig
Fall Forward, Spring Back
Fat
Sacred Grove
Go-Between
Sofia’s Stove
The Second Daguerreotype
Epistle
The Suburban Mysteries
The Sleeve Waves
II
Pastoral
III
Night Vision
Fallout
What Might Happen Might Not
Hard Bop
The Knit
Kochanski’s, Saturday Night
Stopping at the Joyce Kilmer Rest Area on a Snowy Evening
The Disappearances
Trance Music
Spill
Golden Spike
Close Shave
The Ghost of Meter
Petition
Wide Boulevard, Tiny Apartment
Boom Town
Blood Relative
Letter to Hugo from the Land of the Living
End of the Century
Nonsense
Flatland
Double Neighbor
Errand
Interstate
The Obstruction
Duct Tape
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE