Last Seen (Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry) (The Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry) - Softcover

Jacqueline LaMon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299282945 ISBN 13: 9780299282943

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011

Synopsis

Inspired by actual case histories of long-term missing African American children, this provocative and heartrending collection of poems evokes the experience of what it means to be among the missing in contemporary America.

About this title

Review:

“The persons ‘last seen’ in Jacqueline Jones LaMon’s beautifully haunting book include missing children the poet has researched and imagined and a young woman whose apparent leap off the Bay Bridge is at the center of ‘The San Francisco Sonnets.’ These absences, explored through a variety of formal strategies and peripheral perspectives, are echoed in fragments from the life of an elusive ‘you,’ and inform even the momentary joys of the abecedarian ‘Boy Met Girl’ poems. In their powerful tension between absence and presence, between broken narrative and richly detailed lyric, LaMon’s poetic sequences put all our assumptions about stability and permanence into question.”—Martha Collins, author of "Blue Front"

 

 

“At the heart of Jacqueline Jones LaMon’s new collection "Last Seen" is a haunting series of poems born of the silence tragedy and loss wedges into our lives. With restraint and through a variety of characters, LaMon gives voice to those whose voices have been lost to us, who’ve left behind only questions and vivid empty spaces the way a boy, dragging his foot, leaves a trace to follow, fleeting as a ‘mark in the snow.’”—Natasha Tretheway, author of "Native Guard"

"At the heart of Jacqueline Jones LaMon's new collection "Last Seen" is a haunting series of poems born of the silence tragedy and loss wedges into our lives. With restraint and through a variety of characters, LaMon gives voice to those whose voices have been lost to us, who've left behind only questions and vivid empty spaces the way a boy, dragging his foot, leaves a trace to follow, fleeting as a 'mark in the snow.'"--Natasha Tretheway, author of "Native Guard"

"The persons 'last seen' in Jacqueline Jones LaMon's beautifully haunting book include missing children the poet has researched and imagined and a young woman whose apparent leap off the Bay Bridge is at the center of 'The San Francisco Sonnets.' These absences, explored through a variety of formal strategies and peripheral perspectives, are echoed in fragments from the life of an elusive 'you, ' and inform even the momentary joys of the abecedarian 'Boy Met Girl' poems. In their powerful tension between absence and presence, between broken narrative and richly detailed lyric, LaMon's poetic sequences put all our assumptions about stability and permanence into question."--Martha Collins, author of "Blue Front"

"The most disturbing poetics of loss is often the most valuable, beautiful, and lethal. Jacqueline Jones LaMon's "Last Seen", winner of the 2011 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, is a deeply crafted sequence of poems about long-missing African American children in the US. LaMon is a master of the persona poem, where the voices of children, parents, abductors, and friends interact as each tale is revealed. Most poems are built in one single, long stanza, which adds to the tension and drama described. The result is a work in which multiple worlds of love and yearning become one large canvas of intimate humanity."--"The Bloomsbury Review"

At the heart of Jacqueline Jones LaMon s new collection "Last Seen" is a haunting series of poems born of the silence tragedy and loss wedges into our lives. With restraint and through a variety of characters, LaMon gives voice to those whose voices have been lost to us, who ve left behind only questions and vivid empty spaces the way a boy, dragging his foot, leaves a trace to follow, fleeting as a mark in the snow. Natasha Tretheway, author of "Native Guard""

The most disturbing poetics of loss is often the most valuable, beautiful, and lethal. Jacqueline Jones LaMon s "Last Seen," winner of the 2011 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, is a deeply crafted sequence of poems about long-missing African American children in the US. LaMon is a master of the persona poem, where the voices of children, parents, abductors, and friends interact as each tale is revealed. Most poems are built in one single, long stanza, which adds to the tension and drama described. The result is a work in which multiple worlds of love and yearning become one large canvas of intimate humanity. "The Bloomsbury Review""

The persons last seen in Jacqueline Jones LaMon s beautifully haunting book include missing children the poet has researched and imagined and a young woman whose apparent leap off the Bay Bridge is at the center of The San Francisco Sonnets. These absences, explored through a variety of formal strategies and peripheral perspectives, are echoed in fragments from the life of an elusive you, and inform even the momentary joys of the abecedarian Boy Met Girl poems. In their powerful tension between absence and presence, between broken narrative and richly detailed lyric, LaMon s poetic sequences put all our assumptions about stability and permanence into question. Martha Collins, author of "Blue Front""

The persons last seen in Jacqueline Jones LaMon s beautifully haunting book include missing children the poet has researched and imagined and a young woman whose apparent leap off the Bay Bridge is at the center of The San Francisco Sonnets. These absences, explored through a variety of formal strategies and peripheral perspectives, are echoed in fragments from the life of an elusive you, and inform even the momentary joys of the abecedarian Boy Met Girl poems. In their powerful tension between absence and presence, between broken narrative and richly detailed lyric, LaMon s poetic sequences put all our assumptions about stability and permanence into question. Martha Collins, author of Blue Front

"

At the heart of Jacqueline Jones LaMon s new collection Last Seen is a haunting series of poems born of the silence tragedy and loss wedges into our lives. With restraint and through a variety of characters, LaMon gives voice to those whose voices have been lost to us, who ve left behind only questions and vivid empty spaces the way a boy, dragging his foot, leaves a trace to follow, fleeting as a mark in the snow. Natasha Tretheway, author of Native Guard

"

About the Author:

Jacqueline Jones LaMon is associate professor of English and director of the MFA program in creative writing at Adelphi University. She is author of the poetry collection Gravity, U.S.A. and the novel In the Arms of One Who Loves Me. Her poems have appeared in such journals as the Bellevue Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, Mythium, and RATTLE.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0299282945
• ISBN 13: 9780299282943
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80