Thieves' Latin (Iowa Poetry Prize) (The Iowa Poetry Prize Series) - Softcover

Shippy, Peter Jay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877458405 ISBN 13: 9780877458401

Publisher: University of Iowa Press, 2003

Synopsis

Ah, Writ happens, Like the con men who rely on thieves' Latin to ply their trade, the poems in Peter Jay Shippy's award-winning collection don't play well with other poems. They are difficult. They rave. They are unsettling and blunt. They crash cars and ride tsunamis and hitch rides on tugs. They also provide a contemporary, ironic, and tender view of America, all the while layering wordplay, cleverness, and sentiment. Shippy's narrators ""dance like night writing""; they ""witness the reverse / side of actions"" and ""take a walk on the wing""; they feel ""nothing but articulation"" and attach ""our planet to the highest branch""; they ""have a good feeling about most birds, and trust / that they are a friend to man."" In other words, their condition is Beckettian, but they speak like one of Sam Shepherd's dusty road angels.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Jay Shippy holds a BFA from Emerson College and an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Epoch, Poetry Ireland, Another Chicago Magazine, Exquisite Corpse, Expression, Five A.M., Slope, X-Connect, the Harvard Review, and the Denver Quarterly. In 2002, he was awarded an artist's grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and named adjunct professor of the year by the Gold Key Honor Society of Emerson College, where he has taught since 1987.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0877458405
• ISBN 13: 9780877458401
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 88