Richard Siken's Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and love. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken's voice is striking. In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Gluck hails the "cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, and] purgatorial recklessness" of Siken's poems. She notes, "Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to...
Richard Siken's Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and l...
This may be the most anticipated poetry book of the last decade...expect it to haunt you. NPR.org
In reviewing Richard Siken's first book, "Crush, " the "New York Times" wrote that "his territory is where] passion and eloquence collide and fuse." In this long-awaited follow-up to "Crush, " Siken turns toward the problems of making and representation, in an unrelenting interrogation of our world of doublings. In this restless, swerving book simple questionssuch as, "Why paint a bird?"are immediately complicated by concerns of morality, human capacity, and the ways we look to art for...
This may be the most anticipated poetry book of the last decade...expect it to haunt you. NPR.org
