Shapeshift

Bitsui, Sherwin

ISBN 10: 0816523428 / ISBN 13: 9780816523429

Published by University of Arizona Press, 2003

Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 18297020-75

Synopsis:

"Fourteen ninety-something, / something happened / and no one can pick it out of the lineup ..." In words drawn from urban and Navajo perspectives, Sherwin Bitsui articulates the challenge a Native American person faces in reconciling his or her inherited history of lore and spirit with the coldness of postmodern civilization. Shapeshift is a collection of startling new poetry that explores the tensions between the worlds of nature and man. Through brief, imagistic poems interspersed with evocative longer narratives, it offers powerful perceptions of American culture and politics and their lack of spiritual grounding. Linking story, history, and voice, Shapeshift is laced with interweaving images the gravitational pull of a fishbowl, the scent of burning hair, the trickle of motor oil from a harpooned log that speak to the rich diversity of contemporary Dine writing. "Tonight, I draw a raven's wing inside a circlemeasured a half secondbefore it expands into a hand.I wrap its worn grip over our feetAs we thrash against pine needles inside the earthen pot." With complexities of tone that shift between disconnectedness and wholeness, irony and sincerity, Bitsui demonstrates a balance of excitement and intellect rarely found in a debut volume. As deft as it is daring, Shapeshift teases the mind and stirs the imagination.

About the Author: Sherwin Bitsui is the recipient of the 2000-2001 Individual Poet Grant from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry and the 1999 Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship. His poems have appeared in American Poet, The Iowa Review, Frank, Red Ink, and elsewhere.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Shapeshift
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Publication Date: 2003
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good