Reader, I

UP-AND-COMING-POET: This is Van Landingham's third book, following her debut Antidote, which won the 2012 The Ohio State University Press/The Journal Award in Poetry, and Love Letter to Who Owns the Heavens (Tupelo, 2022). Van Landingham is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Wallace Stegner Poetry Fellowship from Stanford University. She's garnered support from writers like Jericho Brown and Cate Marvin, with Brown saying of Reader, I, "The real gift of this work is Van Landingham's ability to transform the mundane into that which is sacred through a kind of plain-spokenness that makes the entire text look like magicfull of formal innovation and wonder," and Marvin calling the collection, "so terrifyingly clever it offers for serious readers of poetry intense pleasure." Van Landingham's work has been published in outlets like The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, and many, many others.

FEMINIST CONTENT BRIDGES HISTORY, MYTHOLOGY, AND CLASSIC LITERATURE WITH CONTEMPORARY LIFE: Given the title's direct nod to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, it should come as no surprise that this a collection engaging with a plethora of historical literary texts, all of which examine the role of the female within the patriarchal models of history: the wife, the mother, the daughter. The themes are, unsurprisingly, feminist, and Van Landingham is obviously well read. But that learned-ness is accessible, and fun. For every mention of Ancient Egypt or of Brontean England, there's a midwestern bowling alley or a public swimming pool; and for every mention of Jane Eyre or Aenea, there's a reference to Phoebe Buffay or Pat Benatar. Relevant, learned, wickedly smart, AND fun. Great for any and all readers of poetry.

Dettagli