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Poems
by Harryette Mullen
Harryette Mullen is one of contemporary poetry's most influential voices, for her inventive language play, keen wit, formal experimentation, and pointed critique of American culture.
In Regaining Unconsciousness, her first new collection in twelve years, Mullen confronts the imminent dangers of our present to sound an alarm for our future, to wake us out of our complicity and despondency: Can we, even still, find our way to our unconscious selves, beyond our capacity to harm, subdue, and consume?
In eleven taut sections written in the eleventh hour of our collective being, these poems address climate change, corporate greed, racist violence, artificial intelligence, the pollution of our oceans, individualism at the cost of mutual wellness, and the consequences of not addressing these pressing issues. Mullen imagines, as we must, our apocalypse, and yet, in an astounding feat, she does so with playfulness and wry referentiality that make these poems surprisingly buoyant, funny, and readable. Our end may be inevitable, Mullen admits, but maybe we begin with gratitude.
"This wildly imaginative work speaks to the present times with a powerful urgency." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A powerful and nuanced collection from a seasoned poet." —Library Journal
"One of our most influential poets, Mullen is an American original, as indispensable as she is uncompromising, whose cold comforts offer a bracing antidote to these overheated times." ―Monica Youn, author of From From
"In Harryette Mullen's furious drylongso salvo, Regaining Unconsciousness, the poet rolls as solo mysterioso performing 'doom indigo,' foot to the una corda pedal. Ahead: the heedless hunger that both chauffeurs and rides the super consumer Death Drive. Athwart: Brooks, Brecht, and Bugs blur under billboards that shill blood spillage, nanoplastic, and digital clouds. Mullen, lexical genius she is, still ain't playing even when she plays, ears attuned to ruin's rubato, eyes on a burning city on a burning world. And she is unamused." ―Douglas Kearney, author of Sho
This information about Regaining Unconsciousness was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Harryette Mullen is the award-winning author of several poetry collections, including Urban Tumbleweed, Recyclopedia, and Sleeping with the Dictionary, a finalist for the National Book Award. She teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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