Bøker utgitt av Brooklyn Arts Press

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Women's Studies. Rejecting the purely lyrical mode and its attendant melancholia, the poems in Lunch Portraits attempt to beat back existential dread by reveling in the delightfully banal totems of mass American culture--hot dogs, cinema, cats, money, youth, selfies. They eat their way through exuberance and fear, richness and emptiness, belonging and alienation, locating in the everyday what is human and hopelessly hungry. Yet in this search for satiation, they also stumble upon the vexing paradoxes inherent in this desire, where no insecurity is entirely innocuous. These poems are alive with appetite and yearning, always hopeful to discover, as Kuan writes, the 'help' button of the burning telephone.

Poetry. Women's Studies. Asian & Asian American Studies. The tremendous pleasure of following the vectors of Wendy Xu's sharp and sparkling mind makes these poems transformative...Elegant. Outright dangerous. She is leading my sight across our terrific landscape. No, she's building it in me.--Solmaz Sharif

Poetry. Harel writes with such grace, lacing his preoccupations with such a light touch of humor, that you often forget THE BODY DOUBLE is cut from the same big questions that keep us all up at night. If you've strayed from poetry, this is the book that will bring you back. If you've ever secretly wished that Kafka had been an optimist, this is the poet for you.--Tea ObrehtWith mischievous appreciation for the human dilemma, THE BODY DOUBLE charts the adventures of a rebellious, canny self within the self, and in doing so offers an imaginative perspective on both the classic doppelgänger and the contemporary fascination with identity. These charming ontological poems suggest our myopia and powerlessness in the face of our own fears and delusions. They offer a wild exploration of proximity: estranged identities we wish we could suppress, the neighboring self we pity or blame. The wily id morphs into a sweeter version of the evil twin--a double-tasking double-dealer who gradually subsumes the hapless narrator. By means of such subtle doubling, Jared Harel entertains and surprises as he encounters--and enlivens--one of the great literary motifs.--Alice FultonTHE BODY DOUBLE is an impressive achievement of imagination and wordplay. With this, his first collection, Harel enters the American literary scene already accomplished. An estimable debut.--BJ WardWhen we look closely at 'I, ' we always seem to see a stranger, and so the doppelg"nger is a perennial figure of dream. The shadow self follows us, looks back sometimes from the face of a person across from us at the intersection, and sometimes seems to speak out of our mouths before we know what's happening. Harel's witty and inventive poem employs a wide register of forms--from the sonnet to the legal contract--to investigate the inexhaustible power of Rimbaud's dictum: Je est un autre.--Mark DotyJared Harel's poetry is spare, beautiful, and evocative. He represents a unique voice in his generation.--Liz Rosenberg

Poetry. Caution and charity, travel and sensitivity, in sites South Asian, American, and European, control the humane tones and the short-lined free verse of [THE WEATHER & OUR TEMPERS], which also reflects its author's other work as a scholar of Buddhism. Concise and welcoming, yet intricately tied to place and religion, this quiet debut could take off.--Publishers WeeklyMeditative and mysterious, these spare, intimate poems trace an inner landscape that stretches from Brooklyn to Paris, Tokyo to Kathmandu.--Lizzie Widdicombe of The New YorkerThe poet's spirit settles among objects, the quotidian flotsam. But how to keep the resulting words incantatory? This is Dominique Townsend's gift. Talismans are everywhere in THE WEATHER & OUR TEMPERS, and some of them are 'flapping encyclopedic wings.' While this is a book full of the sense of man's gentle presence in nature, it also rings with apostrophe and sharp conversations. The ache of being human hangs in the doorways of this poetry. You'll be the wiser for entering.--Peter ThompsonTo read Dominique Townsend's debut book of poetry is to be seduced by a particularly spiritual, sensual, and uniquely modern world, where the questions of body, mind, and--indeed--soul, are sometimes painful, sometimes witty, sometimes searching, and always exquisite. These are poems to treasure and revisit.--Joanna Hershon

"Maldonado thrills with the contradictions in New York City life, where the people, in mourning over another victim of police brutality, can take over a plaza named to honor a colonizer; where the laundromat offers communion and the subway a site for Emersonian contemplation; where laying on your couch very well may be the ultimate act of resistance; where you could be a Central American Quaker in a Caribbean borough grooving to an Icelandic dance queen''s DJing. Spunk, grit, the real deal, that''s what you get here." -Mónica de la Torre

Gregory Crosby is our go-to poet for cinematic deep-dives, apocalyptic parables, hot takes on literary dustups, and lusty interludes of backlit longing. Said No One Ever collects a decades'' worth of breakneck verbal switchbacks and charged poetic insight-there is almost no subject pertinent to American culture that Crosby doesn''t square up. Here we are in the 21st Century, our lives balanced between myth and modernity, advertising and socializing, as Hollywood babbles on and our political scene skips through horrors like a creature feature on a busted reel-but still Crosby manages to plumb these depths without breaking stride or giving in, taking us on a memorable journey through art, language, history, and entertainment.