Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit

“A strutting, dazzling, exhilarating” collection of poems by the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award–winning author of The Cloud Corporation (The Village Voice). In his critically acclaimed debut collection, Timothy Donnelly pairs an extraordinary gift for rhetorical exuberance with a stunning formal mastery. The title poem conjures an imaginary play, populated by objects, that forms an allegorical rendering of a single lifetime. In “Accidental Species,” he puts forth a remarkable statement about his own efforts as a poet, a humorous ars poetica by way of a heartbreaking lover’s complaint. For its thoughtfulness, range, and sheer energy, Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit is a remarkable work from one of our most original young poets. “Filled with dreams both romantic and funny . . . [Donnelly’s] self-deprecating surrealism is vivid and often touching.” —Ken Tucker, The Baltimore Sun