Synopses & Reviews
Poetry. Winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry. "The reader takes an unpredictable, exhilarating trip with the subject matter of Erika Meitner's poems—from memories of a hormone-charged adolescence in the big city, to adult affairs of love and lust and loss; from learning to teach in a classroom filled with pubescent fireplug mirrors of oneself, to confronting one's Jewish history at the hands of an equally fiery grandmother. But riding herd on all this range is Meitner's distinctly snappy voice, a blend of assertiveness and vulnerability"—Stephen Corey. "These are poems like the tattoos she hymns and ponders—they mark our being with their delicate, indelible patterns"—Greg Orr.
Synopsis
Poetry. Winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry. Erika Meitner's is a vertiginous art - full of flash and dazzle, fire and speed, the offbeat and the upbeat, the buoyant bob and weave. She's a poet of perpetual motion, cataloguing pockets of turbulence, gospels of lust, the hours before happy - and after. Erotic, comic, quirky with wordplay and double entendre, her poems embrace the everyday, teasing the miraculous from the mundane. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Meitner casts a wry, empathic eye on the sanctities and subterfuges that keep us human. She is a true original, her affectionate attention resonating in poems that "make the world sing on cue" --Ronald Wallace.
About the Author
Erika Meitner's first book, INVENTORY AT THE ALL- NIGHT DRUGSTORE, won the 2002 Anhinga Prize for Poetry, and was published by Anhinga Press in 2003. Her second book, Ideal Cities, was selected as a winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series, and was published by Harper Perennial in August 2010. Her third collection of poems, MAKESHIFT INSTRUCTIONS FOR VIGILANT GIRL, was published by Anhinga Press in 2011. Her poems have appeared recently in Tin House, The Southern Review, Indiana Review, APR, Slate, VQR, and The New Republic. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she teaches in the MFA program.