shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | October 6, 2009

Jill Owens: IMG The Powells.com Interview with Margaret Atwood

0 comments By Jill Owens

margaretatwoodIn her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood describes a future after humanity had been almost entirely wiped out by a plague. Jimmy, aka Snowman, lives... Continue »
  1. $18.86 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    The Year of the Flood

    Margaret Atwood
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$14.00
New Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Airport Pacific Northwest- Literature Folklore and Memoirs
23 Burnside Poetry- A to Z
7 Burnside Poetry- Featured Titles
24 Hawthorne Poetry- A to Z
25 Local Warehouse Poetry- A to Z
25 Remote Warehouse Poetry- A to Z
Used Book Alert Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.

This title in other formats:

Other titles in the Apr Honickman 1st Book Award series:

  1. All American Poem
  2. In the Surgical Theatre
  3. In the Surgical Theatre : Poems (99 Edition)
  4. Ivory Cradle Poems
  5. Paraph of Bone & Other Kinds of Blue
  6. Things Are Happening: Poems
  7. Things Are Happening: Poems

All-American Poem (Apr Honickman 1st Book Award)

by Matthew Dickman

All-American Poem (Apr Honickman 1st Book Award) Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

"Matthew Dickman's all-American poems are the epitome of the pleasure principle; as clever as they are, they refuse to have ulterior intellectual pretensions; really, I think, they are spiritual in character-free and easy and unself-conscious, lusty, full of sensuous aspiration.... We turn loose such poets into our culture so that they can provoke the rest of us into saying everything on our minds." Tony Hoagland, APR/Honickman First Book Prize judge

All American Poem plumbs the ecstatic nature of our daily lives. In these unhermetic poems, pop culture and the sacred go hand in hand. As Matthew Dickman said in an interview, he wants the "people from the community that I come from" — a blue-collar neighborhood in Portland, Oregon — to get his poems. "Also, I decided to include anything I wanted in my poems.... Pepsi, McDonald's, the word ass.'"

There is no one to save us

because there is no need to be saved.

I've hurt you. I've loved you. I've mowed

the front yard. When the stranger wearing a sheer white dress

covered in a million beads

slinks toward me like an over-sexed chandelier suddenly come to life,

I take her hand in mine. I spin her out

and bring her in. This is the almond grove

in the dark slow dance.

It is what we should be doing right now. Scraping

for joy . . .

back to top

About the Author

Matthew Dickman won the APR/Honnickman First Book Prize for his book All American Poem. His poems have appeared in a wide range of publications, including the New Yorker, Tin House, and Lyric. When not attending a writer's residency, he works in a bakery, where he can "shape five baguettes in under three minutes."
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Jessica Varin, September 24, 2009 (view all comments by Jessica Varin)
Matthew Dickman’s All American Poem is the poetry collection I’ve been waiting for. It’s straight-forward without insulting my intelligence. It’s aware of the world. It’s accessable. It’s brilliantly written and boldly executed.

Dickman writes poetry that’s unpretentious and engaging. Place, pop-culture, lust, and love are just a few of the subjects taken on in this collection. Surprisingly, I was able to read several of Dickman’s multi-page poems back to back. The masters have yet to achieve this kind of harmony with my brain. Matthew Dickman writes the way I aspire to write.

This is contemporary poetry at it’s best. Read it.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
terra, September 20, 2008 (view all comments by terra)
Even if you don't consider yourself a person who typically "likes" poetry, you'll enjoy reading this collection. Matthew's writing is straightforward and relevant, easy for the brain and heart to understand. Treat yourself to a copy.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 2 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780977639540
Author:
Dickman, Matthew
Publisher:
American Poetry Review
Introduction:
Hoagland, Tony
Author:
Hoagland, Tony
Subject:
American - General
Subject:
General Poetry
Series:
Apr Honickman 1st Book Award
Publication Date:
September 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
85
Dimensions:
880x690x40 45
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $15.00 New Trade Paper add to wish list

    The End of the West

    Michael Dickman
  2. $16.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Ballistics: Poems

    Billy Collins
  3. $24.95 New Hardcover add to wish list

    Flight: New and Selected Poems

    Linda Bierds
  4. $11.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Snow's Music

    Floyd Skloot
  5. $22.95 New Hardcover add to wish list

    Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities (Wesleyan Poetry)

    Kazim Ali
  6. $15.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    We Meet

    Kenneth Patchen
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.