Synopses & Reviews
Poetry. Liz Waldner's eighth book PLAY, perhaps her most experimental since ETYM(BI)OLOGY, reads as a hybrid of poetry and theater in which two (or more) voices dialogue with each other, fluctuating between narrative, Sapphic threads and radiating digressions. "In PLAY are two compelling voices deftly outlined by a lyricism that illuminates their intimate encounters with the actual. Whether lovers, ego/id, or disciple/avatar, these interlocutors assay what is at the heart of being human. Here, all the affliction of an `Argument withal, within' is not solved, nor salved, but permeated with the succor of true acknowledgment: `I heard it with my skin'"--Rusty Morrison.
About the Author
Liz Waldner was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in rural Mississippi. She received a BA in philosophy and mathematics from St. John's College. She is the author of TRUST (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009); SAVING THE APPEARANCES (Ahsahta Press, 2004); Dark Would (the missing person) (University of Georgia Press) winner of the 2002 Contemporary Poetry Series; ETYM(BI)OLOGY (Omnidawn Press, 2002); SELF AND SIMULACRA (2001), winner of the Alice James Books Beatrice Hawley Prize; A Point Is That Which Has No Part (2000), which received the 2000 James Laughlin Award and the 1999 Iowa Poetry Prize; and HOMING DEVICES (1998). Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, New American Writing, Ploughshares, and VOLT. Her awards include grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boomerang Foundation, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Money for Women Fund. She has also received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Djerassi Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony.