{"product_id":"shame-shame","title":"Shame | Shame","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eDevin Becker\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es Poulin Prize-winning collection investigates two types of shame: that which disgraces, and that which curbs and keeps. Set in the mundane everyday where lives maneuver around other lives, conversations are clumsy, and a co-worker is the only one without a party invite, these confessional, narrative poems humorously dramatize the socially awkward moments of life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eData (ll)\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlural like dust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003enot moose\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003elike heat\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003enot thunder\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot on, in, above,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eor under\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAlready\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTrace and tracer\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFlesh made\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eflesh \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emade flesh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWord\u003cbr\u003eEraser\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eShame\u003c\/em\u003e | \u003cem\u003eShame\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eDevin Becker\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es \u003cem\u003eShame | Shame\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliant debut collection. Here, the prose poem has been re-imagined as a cinematic vignette, yet rooted as deeply in the American Northwest as anything in Richard Hugo and David Lynch. Raw, intimate, and elliptical in its metaphysics, Devin Becker\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es poetry captures an idiomatic recklessness while navigating those angular narratives of our contemporary lives.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—David St. John, from the Introduction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWhen God was still too young to know any better, he touched \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eTHE VOID,\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e which, \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003ein a rush to fill the space His finger left, \/ ...sent out a universe in ripples.\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e It shamed God that He\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003ed disturbed perfection. He needed a toy. What He came up with (and then discarded to us) was the world Devin Becker evokes in these uncommonly intimate pages. If there are items in Becker\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es life too small or humbling to elude his gift for turning them into irresistible news, not one of them has slipped past him into the graces of this, his first (extremely welcome) book.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—James McMichael\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eDevin Becker has written a drop-dead funny book about desolation, isolation, self-punishment, and shame. Only one for whom humor is a necessity really understands humor. Jokes can be a means of survival and almost redemptive if they make inchoate private suffering communal through its expression, and, like poems, the vitality of jokes depends on rhetorical skill, emotional authenticity, luminous intelligence, and impeccable timing—all characteristics of Devin Becker\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es writing that makes it so engaging and moving and exhilarating.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Michael Ryan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e[An] engaging first book of prose and free-verse poems. Bending to the expectation that prose narrates, he fashions miniature stories—anecdotes, jokes maybe—about not humiliation but existential embarrassment, the conviction that surely being human shouldn’t entail the feelings it does. . . . Besides prose poetry, Becker has also mastered e. e. cummings’ skinny, crawl-down-the-page poem, to similar, gotta-read-it-again effect.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e—\u003cstrong\u003eBooklist\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420383749,"sku":"9781938160592","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/ShameShame_Front.jpg?v=1527683341","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/shame-shame","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}