Description
The poems in Brandon Dean Lamson's first volume, Starship Tahiti, explore imprisoned bodies and the tension between captivity and imagination. Beginning on Rikers Island, the book traces a creation myth in reverse, moving from prison to the spacious arches of Grand Central Station to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.
Lamson examines themes of violence, gender, and identity in various real and imagined settings where inmates read Antigone, Howlin' Wolf sings in a black barbershop, and Metallica records burn on a Viking altar. Throughout these shifts, the poems construct fractured narratives that subvert linear storytelling. The layering of voice and imagery in this collection transgresses boundaries between the secular and the sacred, and between the communal and the personal. As the speaker of ""Portland Bardo"" says, ""The fragile, in between state of larvae hatching / is no less desirable than full bloom in a city of roses, if such a city can ever be found.
About the Author
Brandon Dean Lamson is assistant professor of English at Bethany College. Before earning a PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Houston, USA he taught for three years at an alternative school on Rikers Island in New York. He is the author of a chapbook titled Houston Gothic, and his poems have appeared in many places, including Brilliant Corners, Nano Fiction, Pebble Lake Review, and Hunger.
Book Information
ISBN 9781625340092
Author Brandon Dean Lamson
Format Paperback
Page Count 72
Imprint University of Massachusetts Press
Publisher University of Massachusetts Press
Weight(grams) 333g
Lamson examines themes of violence, gender, and identity in various real and imagined settings where inmates read Antigone, Howlin' Wolf sings in a black barbershop, and Metallica records burn on a Viking altar. Throughout these shifts, the poems construct fractured narratives that subvert linear storytelling. The layering of voice and imagery in this collection transgresses boundaries between the secular and the sacred, and between the communal and the personal. As the speaker of ""Portland Bardo"" says, ""The fragile, in between state of larvae hatching / is no less desirable than full bloom in a city of roses, if such a city can ever be found.
About the Author
Brandon Dean Lamson is assistant professor of English at Bethany College. Before earning a PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Houston, USA he taught for three years at an alternative school on Rikers Island in New York. He is the author of a chapbook titled Houston Gothic, and his poems have appeared in many places, including Brilliant Corners, Nano Fiction, Pebble Lake Review, and Hunger.
Book Information
ISBN 9781625340092
Author Brandon Dean Lamson
Format Paperback
Page Count 72
Imprint University of Massachusetts Press
Publisher University of Massachusetts Press
Weight(grams) 333g
