Erin Malone

Richard Fifield

Rick Barot

Kathryn Smith

David Naimon

Catherine Johnson

Kate Lebo

Nicola Griffith

Joe Wilkins

Elissa Washuta

Beth Piatote

Leyna Krow

Tiffany Midge

Alexis M. Smith

Shawn Vestal

Johanna Stoberock

Kate Peterson

Katrina Roberts

Kathryn Nuernberger

Lucia Perillo

Tess Gallagher

Margot Kahn

Taneum Bambrick

David Allan Cates

Erin Pringle

Nance Van Winckel

Linda Cooper

Ruth Joffre

J. Newell

Anca L. Szilágyi

Rena Priest

Tara Roberts

Leah Sottile

Dayna Patterson

Gary Copeland Lilley

CMarie Fuhrman

Dujie Tahat

Elissa Ball

Alexander Ortega

Ellen Welcker

Mita Mahato

Jennifer Marsh

Emma Noyes

Tamara Love

Katharine Whitcomb

Dawn Pichón Barron

Shantell Jackson

Laura Read

Rachel Mehl

Derek Annis

Christopher Maccini

Seanse Ducken

Tim Greenup

Henrietta Goodman

Inga Laurent

In this rich, shadowy, glittering anthology edited by Sharma Shields and Maya Jewell Zeller , a multitude of Northwest writers share their singular stories, essays, and poems that center what Shields calls "the literature of despair." These pages confront what is difficult in life with extraordinary precision and grace: In Beth Piatote's story "Secondary Infection," a Yakama auntie narrates the undoing of a lonely woman; in the essay "There Is No Story Until It Happens to You," Richard Fifield writes about a devastating car crash in the remote Montana northlands of his youth; in his series of poems, "During the Pandemic," Rick Barot reflects on fear, isolation, and hope as quarantine descends; in her visual poem, "The Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit: An Auto-Elegy," artist Mita Mahato mourns the decline of a fragile species and the terrors of human impact on the environment. In works that span themes from colonialism to environmentalism, from divorce to disease, from toxic masculinity to a loss of faith, the writers here unflinchingly address what makes us vulnerable, what makes us complex, what cleaves us and what connects us. As Zeller writes in the book's introduction, this ambitious anthology pushes us to "learn, memorize, and recite the songs sung by these regional voices, mapping us into a communal root system of evergreen selves."

Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest

Evergreen

A collection of short stories that takes place in the Pacific Northwest includes odd characters such as an addict who becomes obsessed with vacuum cleaners and a suburban housewife who commits armed robberies.

Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain: Stories

Acclaimed poet and MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Lucia Perillo, a former park ranger who loved to hike the Cascade Mountains alone and prided herself on daring solo skis down the wild slopes of Mount Rainier, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was in her thirties. I've Heard the Vultures Singing is a clear-eyed and brazenly outspoken examination of her life as a person with disabilities. In unwavering and witty prose, and without a trace of self-pity, she contemplates the bitter ironies of being unable to walk, what it’s like to experience eros as a sick person, how to lower one’s expectations for a wilderness experience, and how to deal with the vagaries of a disease that has no predictable trajectory. Masterfully written, the essays resonate with lovers of literature and nature, and with anyone who has dealt with disadvantages of the body or the hard-luck limitations of ordinary life.

Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature

I've Heard the Vultures Singing

“I have two words for anyone who wants to know why people turn to poetry…Lucia Perillo.” —New York Times

On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths

"Inseminating the Elephant [is] a collection of poems, often laced with humor, that examines popular culture, the limits of the human body, and the tragicomic aspects of everyday experience."—Pulitzer Prize finalist citation "These poems are tough and witty."—The New Yorker "Whoever told you poetry isn't for everyone hasn't read Lucia Perillo."—Time Out New York A 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Inseminating the Elephant delivers hard-edged yet vulnerable poems that reconcile the comic impulse with the complications and tragedies of living in the eating and breathing body—what Lucia Perillo calls the "meat cage." Perillo dissects human failings and sexuality, as well as collisions between nature and the manufactured world, to create an unforgettable poetic vision. How the zoologists start is by facing the mirror of her flanks, that foreboding luscious place where the gray hide gives way to a zeroing-in of skin as vulnerable as an orchid. Which is the place to enter, provided you are brave, brave enough to insert your laser-guided camera to avoid the two false openings of her "vestibule," much like the way of entering death, of giving birth to death, calling it forth as described in the Tibetan Book. Lucia Perillo graduated from McGill University in Montreal and worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She completed her MA in English at Syracuse University, and has published five books of poetry. She was a MacArthur Fellow in 2000 and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. She lives in Olympia, Washington.

Inseminating the Elephant

"Poet Lucia Perillo, who once worked as a park ranger and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her thirties, confronts the ironies of going from an outdoors person to someone who can no longer walk. Among other topics, these essays explore how poetry provides an alternative means of accessing nature"--Provided by publisher.

"Perillo's poetic persona is funny, tough, bold, smart, and righteous. A spellbinding storyteller and a poet who makes the demands of the form seem as natural as a handshake."—Booklist "The poems [are] taut, lucid, lyric, filled with complex emotional reflection while avoiding the usual difficulties of highbrow poetry."—The New York Times Book Review MacArthur Genius Award winner Lucia Perillo is a fearless poet who, with characteristic humor and incisive irony, confronts the failings and wonder of nature, particularly the frail and resilient human body. This generous collection draws upon five previous volumes, including books selected as a New York Times "100 Notable Books of the Year" and as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. From "Again, the Body": When you spend many hours alone in a room you have more than the usual chances to disgust yourself— this is the problem of the body, not that it is mortal but that it is mortifying. When we were young they taught us do not touch it, but who can keep from touching it, from scratching off the juicy scab?... Lucia Perillo graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a major in wildlife management, and subsequently worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She completed her MA in English at Syracuse University, and has published eight books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. She was a MacArthur Fellow and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Olympia, Washington.

Selected and New Poems

Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones

Lucia Perillo

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