The sunflower cast a spell to save us from the void

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Title :

The sunflower cast a spell to save us from the void / words by Jackie Wang ; illustrations by Kalan Sherrard.

Title:

The sunflower cast a spell to save us from the void

Author:

Wang, Jackie

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

131 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm.

ISBN:

9781643620367

Production / Publication Information:

New York : Nightboat Books, [2021]

Summary:

"The poems in The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void read like dispatches from the dream world, with Jackie Wang acting as our trusted comrade reporting across time and space. By sharing her personal index of dreams with its scenes of solidarity and resilience, interpersonal conflict and outlaw jouissance, Wang embodies historical trauma and communal memory. Here, the all-too-familiar interplay between crisis and resistance becomes first distorted, then clarified and refreshed. With a light touch and invigorating sense of humor, Wang illustrates the social dimension of dreams and their ability to inform and reshape the dreamer's waking world with renewed energy and insight."--Publisher's description.

Language:

English

Added Author:

Sherrard, Kalan

Genre:

Poetry.

Subject Term:

Dreams -- Poetry.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	XX(1372680.2)	1372680-2001	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	811.6 WAN	31481005570564	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	811.6 WAN	32128004051778	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Tewksbury Public Library	POETRY / WANG / SUN	32132003356592	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR POETRY

2022 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS FINALIST

Jackie Wang's magnetic and spellbinding debut collection of poetry that attempts to speak in the language of dreams.

The poems in The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void read like dispatches from the dream world, with Jackie Wang acting as our trusted comrade reporting across time and space. By sharing her personal index of dreams with its scenes of solidarity and resilience, interpersonal conflict and outlaw jouissance, Wang embodies historical trauma and communal memory. Here, the all-too-familiar interplay between crisis and resistance becomes first distorted, then clarified and refreshed. With a light touch and invigorating sense of humor, Wang illustrates the social dimension of dreams and their ability to inform and reshape the dreamer's waking world with renewed energy and insight.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this extraordinary debut, Wang (Carceral Capitalism) creates a symbolist dream diary for catastrophic times. A cross between Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's elliptical poetic treatises and Marosa di Giorgio's fevered fables, Wang tells stories that begin in clarity but unfurl into complex landscapes, exploring the role of projection and imagination in our relationships. "People don't believe that the butterfly stays with me and their disbelief makes me crazy," Wang writes in "Companion Species." "They think I'm making it up so I take my foot out of my shoe and there she is, little yellow wings." In "The Resurrection of Angela," the familiar scene of the overlong poetry reading pivots as the speaker takes the stage "carrying Angela, my decapitated angel... She is dead but I do not know why or how she passed." The book engages with climate change and the apocalyptic, asking, "Can a book parry catastrophe?" At another point, Wang observes, "I have been having such strange and beautiful dreams lately," and readers will be grateful for these potent, dreamlike reflections. (Jan.)

Life Is a Place Where It's Forbidden to Live	p. 1
Death as a Survival Technique	p. 2
The Evil Noodle	p. 6
Companion Species	p. 8
Instead of Thickening My Skin I Buy a Neon Balaclava	p. 10
Refuge	p. 13
The Future Is Between Us	p. 14
Without Tongue	p. 17
The Band of Insurgent Angels	p. 22
The Resurrection of Angela	p. 23
Survivor Trauma	p. 26
Wounded Adjudication	p. 28
Panic at the Disco	p. 31
The Chase	p. 33
Preliminary Notes on the Marxist White Boy Recognition System	p. 35
My Dream Ate My Homework	p. 37
The Museum of Cacography	p. 39
The Sewer Rat Counter-Haunts the Prison by Nesting in Society's Collapsing Aorta	p. 41
Dead Letter Day	p. 43
The Pink Phallus	p. 46
An Inventory of Oneirogenic Herbs and Substances	p. 51
An Inventory of Scenes from Oneirogenic Herb Dreams	p. 52
The Covert Apocalypse	p. 56
Sowers of Discord	p. 59
Cunt River	p. 60
A Difficult Apprenticeship	p. 62
Why Grieving People Are Drawn to Water	p. 67
How the Egg Loses Its Shape	p. 68
Damnation	p. 69
Willow Sisters	p. 71
What Will You Eat?	p. 76
How to Shed the World	p. 81
The Phantasmagoria of Failure	p. 83
Creatures Abandoned by Time	p. 85
How to Measure Use Value	p. 88
Waiting for Godel	p. 89
The Death of Thurston Moore	p. 91
Creation Story	p. 96
Dreaming in Papyrus	p. 97
The Coral Tree	p. 98
The Storm	p. 100
Being Is Without Shelter	p. 103
Masochism of the Knees	p. 105
Fucking on the Cow	p. 106
What Did She Want to Prove?	p. 107
Because There Is Silence	p. 109
The Vernacular of Our Bodies	p. 117
Natura Non Facit Saltus	p. 120
[A Moment Breaking Loose from the Past Becomes the Voice Inside Your Head]	p. 122
The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void	p. 127

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Table of Contents