Synopses & Reviews
Poetry. In her second book, Jennifer Militello investigates the tensions of identity as a source of illness and health. BODY THESAURUS presents the human physique as a flawed conduit and, through poems highlighting symptoms, antidotes, and diagnostic tests, seeks alternate renderings for the complexities of self. Even as the endangered psyche supplies a filter, gods are confronted, maladies are faced, and actualities are marked, remembered, or lost. The beauty of struggle and the chance for redemption act as counterstream, increasingly evident and—again and again in the poet's verse—indisputably real.
Synopsis
In Jennifer Militello's second book, symptoms, diagnostic tests, and antidotes illuminate the tensions of identity central to questions of illness and health. Selected by Marilyn Hacker as a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, BODY THESAURUS explores the failing conduit of human physicality. An endangered psyche faces maladies and confronts gods in poems which, through beauty's counterstream to struggle, embrace the complexities of self.
Synopsis
In her second book, Jennifer Militello uses symptoms, diagnostic tests, and antidotes to illuminate tensions of identity that are central to illness and health. An endangered psyche confronts maladies and faces gods in poems that embody the complexities of self. Selected by Marilyn Hacker as a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, Body Thesaurus examines the failing conduit of human physicality, offering beauty as a counter-stream to struggle.
About the Author
Jennifer Militello is the author of FLINCH OF SONG, winner of the Tupelo Press First Book Award, and BODY THESAURUS, named a finalist for the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award by Marilyn Hacker. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The New Republic, The North American Review, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Best New Poets 2008. She is also the author of the chapbook Anchor Chain, Open Sail.