Owed (Poetry)

Owed (Poetry)
Joshua Bennett
RRP:
NZ$ 40.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 32.00
Paperback
h229 x 152mm - 96pg
3 Sep 2020 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780143133858
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
Gregory Pardlo described Joshua Bennett' s first collection of poetry, The Sobbing School, as an "arresting debut" that was "abounding in tenderness and rich with character," with a "virtuosic kind of code switching. " Bennett' s new collection, Owed, is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form--from elegy and ode to origin myth--these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What' s more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew.
Advance praise for Owed "We' re lucky to have Joshua Bennett' s Owed at this hour in America. The resonances of ' ode' and ' owed' underscore his tremendous acts of invention amid ' an ever-expanding grand Black Epilogue. ' Lyrical and political fibers are woven through narratives as clear and idiosyncratic as the plastic on your grandmother' s couch. Owed fights for the ' ground where the children can play & come home whole. ' Bennett swings with song and exaltation; he swings with resistance and defense. I' m glad to have his amazing collection right now. I will be glad to have it tomorrow. " --Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin"Owed is an indictment of the state even as it is an ode to the ongoingness of Black imagination. Here, a single moment shimmers with a million resonances of attention. So the world is loved this much. And what has been taken has been taken this much. Bennett insists on repair even as he mourns what is utterly irreparable. This book is part of a breathful, bodied fight for Black life. I am emboldened and sharpened by Bennett' s genius and by his love made plain across each of these shimmering pages. " --Aracelis Girmay, author of The Black Maria Praise for the work of Joshua Bennett: "In his scintillating debut, Bennett raises a crucial question about the writing of African-American experience: how can one convey the enormity of black suffering without reducing black life and expression to elegy? . . . At its heart, Bennett' s sharp collection is an ode to family, friendship and culture that neither pulls punches nor withholds sentiment. " - Publishers Weekly "Bennett is one of the most impressive voices in poetry today . . . he is also quietly building a reputation as one the brightest intellectual and political thinkers of a new generation. " - Jesse McCarthy, Dissent Magazine"' Who can be alive today/and not study grief, ' Joshua Bennett asks in this arresting debut. Yet these poems are no study in grief. Abounding in tenderness and rich with character, these are no quaint lyrics. They leap into our lives, engaging, crackling with wit and intelligence. It' s one of Bennett' s unique gifts--a virtuosic kind of code switching--to deliver a civil tone of I' d rather you didn' t, while we know what he means is, more provocatively, I wish you would. " - Gregory Pardlo "At a moment in American culture punctuated to a heartbreaking degree by acts of hatred, violence and disregard, I can think of nothing we need to ponder and to sing of more than our shared grief and our capacity not just for empathy but genuine love. Poetry is critical to such an endeavor--and Joshua Bennett' s astounding, dolorous, rejoicing voice is indispensable. " - Tracy K. Smith"At the heart of Joshua Bennett' s debut collection lies grief, but his poems also pay tribute to the human will to endure. There are glimpses here of James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston where Bennett' s syntactical dexterity and feeling for language meet the rhythm and flow of dangerous music. His poems of identity are also poems of imagery and invention, and they testify to poetry' s endless mutability through story and song, lament and praise. The Sobbing School is an essential book for our times. " --Eugene Gloria
Poet, performer, and scholar Joshua Bennett is the author of The Sobbing School. He received his PhD in English from Princeton University, and is currently Mellon Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. His writing has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. His book Being Property Once Myself- Blackness and the End of Man will be published by Harvard University Press in February 2020. His first work of narrative nonfiction, Spoken Word- A Cultural History, is forthcoming from Knopf. He lives in Boston.
Status: Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13: 9780143133858
Published: 3 Sep 2020
Published In: United States
Imprint: Penguin USA
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
Format: Paperback
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Pages: 96

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information