It’s easy to read a book by Jennifer L. Knox and imagine all the characters between the front and back covers living in the same world, if not in the same town. This feeling is strongest in Days of Shame & Failure (Bloof Books, forthcoming 2015), Knox’s fourth and maybe most heartbreaking book to date. The characters Knox illuminates here (Marilyn in “Life’s Work,” Tommy in “A Fairy Tale,” unnamed I’s) are all bound together by various forms of shame and/or failure. And by extension, Knox, with her characteristic use of dark humor, holds a mirror up to us as readers. Some of these poems are gut-bustingly funny, some are sniffle-worthy, but most are even better: a combination of both. Knox isn’t so much keeping her finger on the pulse of life in America as she is speaking from it: that is to say, through saying a lot, trying to figure it out along with the rest of us (whatever “it” is).
Tag Archives: Bloof Books
We Were (Sobbing? No, Not Yet): On Jennifer L. Knox’s Days of Shame & Failure
Filed under Books + Literature, Reviews
Rah! Rah! Roundup
This week, Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover brought important responses from Laverne Cox and Janet Mock, among others. And the conversation continued with the hashtag #MyVanityFairCover.
The Lambda Literary Awards announced its 2015 winners this week. Congrats to all the winners and honorees! Continue reading
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Rah! Rah! Roundup
In exciting literary news this week, Bloof Books announced their 2015 chapbook series, which includes the brillz Khadijah Queen, Ginger Ko, Nikki Wallschlaeger, and more.
Becca Klaver talked about her book LA Liminal, 90s nostalgia and more as Brooklyn Poets’ Poet of the Week, and Jennifer Tamayo’s YOU DA ONE was reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly. JT’s piece from and in response to the Poetry Project event “My Kind of Happening: Short Texts on the Future Nature of the Reading” continues to raise important questions about community and accountability. And Morgan Parker knocks our socks off with her virtual reading for Bruce Covey’s What’s New in Poetry video series on Real Pants.
Thanks in part to hostesses with the mostesses Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, the Golden Globes had no shortage of feminist moments this year. We’ve been following all the discussion this week about Margaret Cho’s performance, and thinking about women comedians and rape jokes in relation to Amy and Tina’s Bill Cosby joke as well as this week’s Broad City Season 2 premiere. And speaking of Broad City, we adore Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. Continue reading
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