{"title":"Rachel Mennies","description":"\u003cp\u003eRachel Mennies is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Naomi Letters\u003c\/i\u003e (BOA Editions, 2021) and \u003ci\u003eThe Glad Hand of God Points Backwards\u003c\/i\u003e (Texas Tech University Press, 2014), winner of the Walt McDonald First-Book Prize in Poetry and finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. Her poems and essays have been published at \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e, Poetry Foundation, and elsewhere. She serves as the book reviews editor for \u003ci\u003eAGNI\u003c\/i\u003e and the series editor, since 2016, of the Walt McDonald First-Book Prize in Poetry at Texas Tech University Press. Mennies served as the 2021-2022 Walton Visiting Writer in Poetry for the University of Arkansas MFA Program in Creative Writing and Translation. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Mennies currently lives in Chicago, where she works as a writer, editor, and adjunct professor. Learn more about Rachel Mennies at \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.rachelmennies.com\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003erachelmennies.com\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-naomi-letters","title":"The Naomi Letters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRachel Mennies embraces the public\/private duality of writing letters in her latest collection of poems. Told through a time-honored epistolary narrative, \u003ci\u003eThe Naomi Letters\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the relationship between a woman speaker and Naomi, the woman she loves.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSet mostly over the span of a single year encompassing the 2016 Presidential Election and its aftermath, their love story unfolds via correspondence, capturing the letters the speaker sends to Naomi—and occasionally Naomi’s responses, as filtered through the speaker’s retelling. These letter-poems form a braid, first from the use of found texts, next from the speaker’s personal observations about her bisexuality, Judaism, and mental illness, and lastly from her testimonies of past experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs the speaker discovers she has fallen in love with Naomi, her letters reveal the struggles, joys, and erasures she endures as she becomes reacquainted with her own body following a long period of anxiety and suicidal ideation, working to recover both physically and emotionally as she grows to understand this long-distance love and its stakes—a love held by a woman for a woman, forever at a short, but precarious distance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eThe Naomi Letters\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In this book-length, epistolary sequence, Rachel Mennies addresses Naomi—beloved, elusive, erotic muse, anchoring the narrator’s wide-ranging meditations on the female body. Released by the intimacy of the letter form, Mennies interrogates desire and the longing to ‘unbrick’ the houses that contain, medicalize, or thwart the complexity of women’s expression. Lines from many cherished poets—including Amichai and Rich—create a dense conversation across geographies and identities. Jewish cultural practices and the fierce love between the Biblical Naomi and Ruth echo here. Dated like diary entries over the course of a year, these ‘portals to the made world’ attest to the ‘small electrocutions’ and ‘impossible peace’ of daily experience. Original, piercing, \u003ci\u003eThe Naomi Letters\u003c\/i\u003e makes a startling, unforgettable contribution to contemporary American poetry.” \u003cb\u003e—Robin Becker, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Black Bear Inside Me\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Rachel Mennies’ second book is a triumph. \u003ci\u003eThe Naomi Letters\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles a year in epistles that invites the reader into the intimacy of a private exchange where we, over and over again, bear witness to the poet's expansive vision. At once grief-limned, sharp, and funny, this book explores the desires, obsessions, and limitations of the writing body negotiating history on this particular planet sprinting toward the unknown. This is a book to read, and then read again, and then again.” \u003cb\u003e—sam sax, author of \u003ci\u003ebury it\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eS\u003cem\u003eeptember 5, 2016\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI want to read you a poem—\u003ci\u003epink sky in the morning\u003c\/i\u003e, it opens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA girl’s sky\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen you look at me, do you see a woman who only knows how to love a man?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese were the only stories read to me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis fault, too, is mine alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSlowly the trees become visible\u003c\/i\u003e, Olds writes, \u003ci\u003eand the spaces between them\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(This line makes me think of you—the white space in your letters.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll my life, I have looked out at the world and never seen \u003ci\u003ebetween\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI clung to each tree I could touch without moving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut here you are, Naomi, and I write to you at dawn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(\u003ci\u003eImagine being able to walk, into the woods, without fear.\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe black sky holds all colors close. Anything could happen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI will wait here, reading, for the sun to rise, to show you what it decides.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":32711986118737,"sku":"9781950774296","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/TheNaomiLetters_FIN-min.jpg?v=1603293649"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/RM-71.jpg?v=1603290313","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/rachel-mennies.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}