Synopses & Reviews
An edgy but big-hearted poetry debut in the style of Ada Limón and Tao Lin, by a winner of Poets & Writers magazine's prestigious Amy Award to outstanding women poets
Leigh Stein’s poetry has been creating a buzz since her days as a New Yorker staffer. Funny, charming and imaginative, her work deals with the experience of growing up in a world saturated with fantasy and social media, and explores the trials of becoming an adult. Her numerous readings of her work around town—often presented dramatically, sometimes with puppets—made her a local hit.
Now, in the wake of the publication of her greatly anticipated first novel, The Fallback Plan, she lives up to the buzz with a funny, charming and imaginative debut poetry collection.
Uncanny yet lyrical, these poems go from the darkest side of Facebook to the remotest corner of the desert. Through online dating, beauty pageants, Greek mythology, and road trips, Stein weaves a tapestry of young women in love and in longing. Post-confessional, like Sylvia Plath raised on MTV, or Anne Sexton on Twitter, Stein knows how to draw readers in with a narrative hook, or a pop culture reference. This irreverent collection points the way to what contemporary poetry can be.
Synopsis
"I love these poems."
—Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine
Funny, surprising and lyrical, these poems range from the deserts of the Southwest to the abysses of Facebook. From online dating to beauty pageants, Greek mythology to road trips, Leigh Stein gives us resilient young women in longing and in love.
Post-confessional—like Sylvia Plath raised on MTV, or Anne Sexton on Twitter—the poems seduce with a narrative hook or startle with a pop culture reference, all the while wrestling fresh meaning out of our fantasy-saturated modern lives.
Leigh Stein’s first novel, The Fallback Plan, was hailed as “beautiful, funny, thrilling, and true” by Gary Shteyngart (Super Sad True Love Story). A former New Yorker staffer and frequent contributor to its “Book Bench” blog, Stein is also the author of the poetry chapbook How to Mend a Broken Heart with Vengeance, and is the winner of the Amy Award from Poets & Writers magazine. She lives in Brooklyn.
About the Author
Leigh Stein is a former New Yorker staffer and frequent contributor to its “Book Bench” blog. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and awarded the prestigious Poets & Writers Amy Award. Her first novel, The Fallback Plan, was published by Melville House in January 2012. She lives in Brooklyn, where she works in children’s publishing and teaches musical theater to elementary school students.