{"product_id":"four-in-hand","title":"Four in Hand","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAudiobook now Available! \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1527029023\u0026amp;color=%23ff5500\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;\"\u003e\n\u003ca style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" title=\"BOA Editions\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/justine-alfano\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBOA Editions\u003c\/a\u003e · \u003ca style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" title=\"Sample of Four In Hand by Alicia Mountain\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/justine-alfano\/four-in-hand-by-alicia-mountain\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eSample of Four In Hand by Alicia Mountain\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComprised of four heroic crowns of sonnets, Alicia Mountain’s \u003ci\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e is both formal and experimental, ranging from lyric romantic and familial narratives to blank verses of reconfigured found text pulled from financial newsletter emails.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLanguage and white space equally captivate with their sparsity and abundance as Mountain pursues the implications of national political identity with intersectional awareness. These poems interrogate our collective complicity in late-stage capitalism, drone warfare, the election of Donald Trump, environmental degradation, mental health crises, and the dawn of Covid-19 through the lens of gay poetic lineage, regionalism, and familial kinships structures.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAs in all lived experiences, treacheries and triumphs fade in and out of focus and intimacy, heartbreak, travel, eroticism, joy, and quotidian happenings offer character and momentum across non-linear narrative arcs. Through enthralling images, gripping storytelling, and world-building, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e carves out necessary space for lesbian gaze, speakership, and personhood. From the back corner of a vast, sprawling, yet gorgeous landscape of thought, Mountain's poems beckon us inside.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The four-sonnet structure of this collection is romantic enough to read aloud in the afterglow of new love, but its subject matter (which touches on everything from Trump’s election to mental illness to the COVID-19 pandemic) provides a welcome snap of reality.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Emma Specter,\u003cem\u003e Vogue\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“In Alicia Mountain’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, the speaker tells us that the book is ‘a monument to touch,’ but more pointedly, it plays with an erotics of geography where thunder ‘spanks the hills,’ where one is encouraged to ‘drink the tidal push,’ where ‘tectonic shifts are underway.’ What is Mountain telling the reader about a storm that cannot be felt until the moment we feel ‘wrung out’ by its torrent? About a howl that cannot relieve what a beloved has buried within them? In these four sonnet crowns, each masterfully executed with their own distinct rhetorical and linguistic logics, Mountain enacts an alternative to catharsis; posits a kind of anti-catharsis. There is no rising action and then relief, instead Mountain interpolates what happens when the world does not change, but repeats, and insists on its tired holding patterns. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e doesn't simply tackle the failings of global health industries, the precarity of queer spaces, or how the language of risk and resilience end up recoding bodies through capital, it \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ecommands\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e something else of ‘our sharp parts.’ It points us to an elsewhere of possibilities.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Megan Fernandes, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGood Boys\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eapplies the gentle pressure of imagination to the possible world. Intimacy and expansiveness, grounded in episodic grace and sensual generosity, fuel Alicia Mountain’s work. Her words present us with beauty and allow us to revel in it, despite feeling ‘held tight like too much hope.’ We are shown emotional and environmental devastation, and given the music to reckon with the painful awareness that transforms best into action, repeated. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is a blood rush, a mode of love in language crafted with care and immersion and insistence, harnessing the power of ‘a swarm\/keeping quiet when I want to howl.’” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Khadijah Queen, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnodyne\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Heroic, indeed. These poems are dauntless. In \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Alicia Mountain’s sonnet series refuses the pull of thematic or stylistic singularity \u0026amp; favors instead the unrelenting materiality of interpersonal collage \u0026amp; sociopolitical pastiche. Mountain has not only satisfied the demands of all great crowns, but bettered them: with the language of politics, illness, class warfare, \u0026amp; the intimacy of the lesbian gaze, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFour in Hand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e sweetens the cycle of our times—pandemic within pandemic—\u0026amp; pulls us back inside the volta where we remember our own humanity \u0026amp; haven’t yet forgotten one another’s. What a phenomenal \u0026amp; necessary feat.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Meg Day, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLast Psalm at Sea Level\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\"'This book is a monument to touch,\/ even with its hands in its pockets,' she promises. And, indeed, these sprawling, inviting pages deliver by revealing Mountain’s intimate and dynamic voice.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eTrain Town Howl\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis book is a monument to touch, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eeven with its hands in its pockets.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eEven with your hair in your eyes as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edisguise, there is no making public \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehow we push and pull in dark corners.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe beehive whispers when it sees our \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehands touch, the train town howls and\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehowls. The rough face smiles beside yours. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLick my teeth in the daylight. Still no \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003echaser. Still no closer to extinguishing \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethe bolt of my lightning you hold captive. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI have held the bright storm of you \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehot in my hands. I would do it again,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehowever quick, however long it lasts. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46623853117669,"sku":"978-1-950774-86-9","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":46623853150437,"sku":"","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/FourInHand_CVR_SM.jpg?v=1667501663","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/four-in-hand","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}