2009 Massachusetts Book Awards Winner

Representing nothing less than a tour-de-force of formal invention and emotional intensity, Oni Buchanan's Spring encompasses radically contrasting work. Ecstatic, visually intricate rhapsodies are juxtaposed with tight, sonnet-like poems, and wispy columns of verse brush up against large-scale epics and kinetic text. This collection's point of departure is the paradox of existence as an individual in a political and violent world. All of the formal innovations in this book have in common an urgent need for texture and polyphony, and the poems attempt to discover how to fulfill the individual human responsibility of surviving as a resiliently loving and hopeful living creature. An accompanying multimedia compact disc offers a full Flash-animated version of the printed kinetic work, "The Mandrake Vehicles."

A fierce collection of innovative, emotive poetry

About the Author
Oni Buchanan, a conservatory-trained concert pianist, is the author of the poetry collection What Animal.

Reviews

"In this adventurous mix of taut lyrics, dramatic monologues and free-ranging typographical experiments, Buchanan, who is also a pianist, has an ear for mellifluous runs and beautifully, at times humorously, evoked emotions."--Publishers Weekly

"Buchanan writes poems that are deeply sensitive, precisely imagined, fun and beautiful. She is taking poetry where it needs to go."--Time Out New York

"Spring oscillates with ease and grace between the spaces of beauty and decay in the modern world."--American Poet


Awards
Commended for Massachusetts Book Award (MassBook) (Poetry) 2009.



Book Information
ISBN 9780252075643
Author Oni Buchanan
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Weight(grams) 286g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 10mm