{"product_id":"how-to-be-better-by-being-worse","title":"How to be Better by Being Worse","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinalist for the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of  Letters\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSelected by Richard Blanco as winner of the 2019 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Justin Jannise turns the self-help manual on its head in \u003cem\u003eHow to be Better by Being Worse\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese poems flout, subvert, question, and ignore the rules with exploratory energy. Queer experiences are celebrated—from crushing on long-dead, sad-eyed poets to drag divas dancing at Halloween parties—gender constructs are questioned, and familial transgressions are laid bare for the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDelightfully modulating between flippant, sincere, and back again, \u003ci\u003eHow to Be Better by Being Worse\u003c\/i\u003e freely indulges in harmless wickedness as its speaker grows in self-awareness, slowly learning to let go of inherited shame while continuing to seek self-forgiveness for the harms he has caused the outside world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Justin Jannise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“There’s an abundance of \u003ci\u003egood\u003c\/i\u003e poetry being written today. Poetry that exhibits \u003ci\u003egood\u003c\/i\u003e style, exercises \u003ci\u003egood\u003c\/i\u003e technique, and evokes \u003ci\u003egood\u003c\/i\u003e sentiments. But Jannise has done more than write just another \u003ci\u003egood\u003c\/i\u003e book of poetry—he’s written a \u003ci\u003egreat\u003c\/i\u003e book, and beyond that, quite a \u003ci\u003ememorable\u003c\/i\u003e one.” \u003cb\u003e—Richard Blanco, from the Foreword\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This thoroughly delightful debut collection by Justin Jannise is full of wit and fire and play. He has an impressively off kilter sensibility that pierces the banality of American-style absurdities and pop culture's often vacuous signs and icons like a particularly scathing and funny X-ray (an illuminating device that he notably points at his speaker as well). Equally as impressive, his poems have real formal integrity and a structural intelligence that speaks of this poet's authentic engagement with the art. Jannise's \u003ci\u003eHow to Be Better by Being Worse\u003c\/i\u003e reminds me again that poetry is supposed to be for its reader, first and foremost, a \u003ci\u003epleasure\u003c\/i\u003e.” \u003cb\u003e—Erin Belieu, author of \u003ci\u003eCome Hither Honeycomb\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWhen I said I needed more, I meant coffee\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ebut we were midway through “real talk”\u003cbr\u003eand, logically, I might have been responding\u003cbr\u003eto your desire to see less of me.\u003cbr\u003eThe dark film developing at the base\u003cbr\u003eof my mug was taking me back to Kansas,\u003cbr\u003ea clapboard bed-and-breakfast, the streets\u003cbr\u003ethat day or night were dead empty.\u003cbr\u003eBetween the two of us, we had enough\u003cbr\u003eto live there for a month.\u003cbr\u003eHow many dime-store novels do you think\u003cbr\u003ewe could have read aloud to each other\u003cbr\u003ein that floral-patterned room, between meals\u003cbr\u003eand lying down as long as we could stand it,\u003cbr\u003ewrapped up in ourselves like the damp towels\u003cbr\u003ewe let fall to the floor?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Cloth","offer_id":44955982332133,"sku":"9781950774234","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"9781950774340","offer_id":44955982364901,"sku":"9781950774235","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/9781950774234_FC.jpg?v=1603292507","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/how-to-be-better-by-being-worse","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}