Jen Sperry's A Wake with Nine Shades arrived in my mailbox this morning. The Long 1980s: Constellations of Art, Politics and Identities, A Collection of Microhistories did, too. I am, as of this moment, suppressing the exclamation points. But I want to be using a lot of exclamation points!
More to come after I delve into Jen Sperry’s poems and these microhistories of the 80s.
This description of A Wake with Nine Shades is copied straight from Jen’s Amazon page…
A Wake with Nine Shades is an exploration of grief and culpability, a Dantean descent through contemporary midlife crisis. Populated by ghosts and children, lovers and amputations, bodies of water, insomnia, debt and domestic violence, Steinorth measures what is broken against the white space of the page, paying homage to the Great Lakes and snowscapes her poems inhabit and the vacancies, denials, and drains they circle. Formally inventive and musically obsessive, the book’s unconventional formal construction and lyric wit contribute what Eleanor Wilner deems the essential “Lightness” described by Italo Calvino, noting Steinorth’s “ability to treat weighty subjects with a mastery of style . . . a liveliness of imagination and intelligence that lightens, without denial, what would otherwise be unbearable. . . .”
Jennifer Sperry Steinorth
The Long 1980s speculates on the significance of the 1980s for the arts and society today. Arguing that the 1980s saw a fundamental reorientation in the relationship between governments and their publics, this volume explores how the effects of this shift have shaped our contemporary condition.
Looking back at texts and artworks produced at the time, The Long 1980s puts this pivotal decade in context, exploring how it continues to shape the imaginative landscape of the 21st century.
Contributors include Henry Andersen, Hakim Bey, Rosi Braidotti, Boris Buden, Jesús Carrillo, Luc Deleu, Diedrich Diederichsen, Charles Esche, Marcelo Expósito, Annie Fletcher, Diana Franssen, June Givanni, Lisa Godson, Lubaina Himid, Lola Hinojosa, Antony Hudek, Tea Hvala, Gal Kirn, Anders Kreuger, Elisabeth Lebovici, Rogelio López Cuenca, Geert Lovink, Amna Malik, Pablo Martínez, Lourdes Méndez, Marta Popivoda, Carlos Prieto del Campo and Pedro G. Romero.