University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024 Paper: 978-0-8229-6721-7 | eISBN: 978-0-8229-9027-7
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Written over a decade while the author lived on four continents, A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye maps the cultural legacies we cherish against those we reject. Playful and wrenching by turns, with lines inflected by the spoken music of their Arabic, Oshiwambo, Xhosa, and Italian contexts, these profound poems explore a life where displacement is the norm. From choosing not to have children to wrestling with a left-hand stick shift in Johannesburg traffic to braising a camel loin for friends in Damascus, V. Penelope Pelizzon’s poems transport us into unexpected depths of feeling with language that is scintillant, luxurious, and wise.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
V. Penelope Pelizzon is the author of Nostos, which won the Hollis Summers Prize and the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, and Whose Flesh Is Flame, Whose Bone Is Time, which was a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. She is also the coauthor of Tabloid, Inc., a critical study of film, photography, and crime narratives. Her recognitions include a Hawthornden Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship, a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship, and a “Discovery”/The Nation Award. A diplomat’s spouse, she has spent the past two decades living and working part-time in Syria, Namibia, South Africa, Italy, and the United States.
REVIEWS
"Pelizzon’s virtuosity underpins a collection that is urgent and elegiac, hilarious and harrowing, its detours into memory as vividly realized as the author’s obvious joy in literature and life." —Ned Balbo, Literary Matters
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye
* * *
Orts & Slarts
The Soote Season
Blue Hour
Call & Response
Ill-starred
Elegy for _______
Gypsy Moths
* * *
Africa Hand
Animals & Instruments
* * *
Fado
Sentimental Education
Some Say
Western Wind
Elegy for Estrogen
Wishes for Fifty
Cliché
* * *
Of Vinegar Of Pearl
* * *
Euphorbia
* * *
Acknowledgments
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