Shake

by Joshua Beckman

Overview

Beckman’s new poems come to us directly and intimately. Compulsively readable, full of fear and persistence, they resonate with the wildness and generosity of Ginsberg, Whitman, and Ted Berrigan, turning the everyday into an encompassing, harrowing, humorous, necessary vision. Beckman is, as Publishers Weekly notes, “the real thing.”

Joshua Beckman is the author of numerous poetry collections, translations, and collaborative works. His awards include a NYFA Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Seattle and New York.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933517001
Publisher:	Wave Books
Publication date:	04/01/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Joshua Beckman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He is the author of nine books, including The Inside of an Apple (Wave Books, 2013), Take It, Shake, Your Time Has Come, and two collaborations with Matthew Rohrer: Nice Hat. Thanks. and Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He is an editor at Wave Books and has translated numerous works of poetry and prose, including Micrograms, by Jorge Carrera Andrade, 5 Meters of Poems (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010) by Carlos Oquendo de Amat and Poker (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008) by Tomaž Šalamun, which was a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Award. He is also the recipient of numerous other awards, including a NYFA fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Seattle and New York.

Editorial Reviews

The three long poems of Beckman's fifth collection mourn the depravity of American urban life while celebrating (sometimes with a bit of irony) the fleeting transcendence of love, sex and fun. Eschewing narrative in favor of episodic variations on the above, Beckman (Your Time Has Come, 2004) punctuates these extended meditations, comprising related poems grouped in series, with crystal-clear images rife with sad humor: "In heaven there'll be umbrellas for children (their size)." The results are subversively disorienting and emotionally precise. (Apr. 1) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Offering imagery that's incisive yet colloquially phrased, Pushcart Prize winner Beckman retains the freshness of a poet to watch even though he has published five other books (e.g., Your Time Has Come). Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal