Zurawski, Magdalena: Companion Animal

Description

Companion Animalby Magdalena Zurawski (Litmus Press, paperback)

Publication Date: May 30, 2015

Publisher Marketing:Poetry. LGBTQIA Studies. Winner of the 2016 Norma Farber First Book Award. In her debut full-length poetry collection COMPANION ANIMAL, Magdalena Zurawski delivers poems as distilled acts of reckoning, always engaged with the question: what could poetry “do with or for or around all that?” Of the book, Jennifer Moxley writes, “Beautifully continuing what was so engaging about the work of New American poets such as Jack Spicer and Robert Creeley, these poems are hyper-aware of their contradictions, yet completely emotionally vulnerable. They refuse cynicism and pretense, and such a refusal explodes any possibility of intellectual distancing or emotional hiding.”

“A few years ago, armed with seven books, and guided by a small dog, Magdalena Zurawski decided to start over as a poet. She was in the kind of mood where extravagant poetic language can appear dishonest, so, for the most part, she limited the contents of her poems to what was strictly necessary. But in each poem she did exactly one unnecessary thingoften the unnecessary thing was the appearance of the small dogand that was how she reinvented poetry. Rarely has the poetic impulse been isolated with such intensity. Rarely has it cohabited so successfully with plain speech. Here are the eagerly anticipated results. Wise, forceful, honest, clean as a whistle yet with a shockingly foul mouth, and very doggy. Sometimes the nastiest parts are also the nicest parts. I find that inspiring.”Aaron Kunin

“The ubiquitous beloved dog, lost gone-to-spirit friends still haunting, and a blazing self inside the complex structure that incubates all poetry weave here and are the COMPANION ANIMAL. I love Zurawski’s wit, street smart attitude and uber chastity for the poem, its essence always questioned and explored. Confessional and skinny shapeshifting combine here in a matrix of insouciant wonder. Be part of it, be wowed and charmed by heartbreak and mammal restlessness.”Anne Waldman