Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2015 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award
2015 Lambda Literary Award FinalistWith rhythmic poetry and intimate prose, Haiti Glass offers an unflinching look at disaster, desire, and death-defying love.
In her debut collection of verse and prose, Moïse moves deftly between memories of growing up as a Haitian immigrant in the suburbs of Boston, to bearing witness to brutality and catastrophe, to intellectual, playful explorations of pop culture enigmas like Michael Jackson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Be it the presence of a skinhead on the subway, a newspaper account of unthinkable atrocity, or the ''noose loosened to necklace'' of desire, the cut of Haiti Glass lays bare a world of resistance and survival, mourning and lust, need and process, triumph and prayer.
Praise for Haiti Glass:
"Haiti Glass is a magnificent collection of poetry and prose. Part mantra, part lamentation, part prayer, this incredible book puts us wholly in the presence of an extraordinary and brave talent, whose voice will linger in your heart and mind long after you read the last word of this book."—Edwidge Danticat
"Very powerful poetry and prose. The spoken word cadence to many of the poems works really well on the page. Moïse takes up the complexities of Haitian culture, the immigrant experience, sexuality and gender, and bearing witness. Highly recommended."—Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
"With a bold, unblinking eye, Lenelle Moïse shows us the tragic yet beautiful world in which we live and challenges us not to turn away, but to turn towards with hope, compassion, and love. With all my heart, I thank her for writing these poems."—Lesléa Newman, author of October Mourning, A Song for Matthew Shepard
"Haiti Glass is a book fierce with ambition: make the reader feel Haiti, make the reader think Haiti, make the reader understand Haiti. Lenelle Moïse''s poems render the abstract- policy, disaster, history, diaspora- specific. Her words make the political not just personal, but corporeal: the beautiful system of the human body as canvas and subject, perfect in all its attendant complications and complexity, and still ruled, undeniably, by a warm, beating heart."—Erin McKeown, musician
"The year 2014 will be hard pressed to give us a more powerful debut poetry collection than Lenelle Moïse''s Haiti Glass … This is the rare book of poetry that makes one pause while reading, look up from the page, whistle low."—Courtney Gillette, Lambda Literary Review
Trade ReviewPraise for Haiti Glass: "Haiti Glass is a magnificent collection of poetry and prose. Part mantra, part lamentation, part prayer, this incredible book puts us wholly in the presence of an extraordinary and brave talent, whose voice will linger in your heart and mind long after you read the last word of this book. "-Edwidge Danticat "Very powerful poetry and prose. The spoken word cadence to many of the poems works really well on the page. Moise takes up the complexities of Haitian culture, the immigrant experience, sexuality and gender, and bearing witness. Highly recommended."-Roxane Gay "With a bold, unblinking eye, Lenelle Moise shows us the tragic yet beautiful world in which we live and challenges us not to turn away, but to turn towards with hope, compassion, and love. With all my heart, I thank her for writing these poems."-Leslea Newman, author of October Mourning, A Song for Matthew Shepard "The year 2014 will be hard pressed to give us a more powerful debut poetry collection than Lenelle Moise's Haiti Glass... This is the rare book of poetry that makes one pause while reading, look up from the page, whistle low."--Courtney Gillette, Lambda Literary Review "Hard to believe then that this is [Moise's] first book, which captures her passionate live performance in a way one can linger a little longer and study a little more closely her precisely chosen words. Moise's poems range from memories of childhood growing up in Haiti and American, to stories from her homeland marked by the atrocities of abject poverty and environmental disaster. Moise's work is always self-reflective, political and personal navigating the hurdles faced by black and brown immigrants in a promised land full of gated privilege. Her verse investigates the underbelly of family and society looking starkly at sexuality, violence and hope as it confronts despair."-Grace Moon, Velvetpark
Table of ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS
haiti glass
mud mothers
adaptation
the children of immigrants
we live up here
gift a sea
for how loudly
remember noah
where our protest sound
quaking conversation
because john doe is not a haitian name
her remains
no person
life is another word
mayday
for the sore
self portrait as a heel
a pump of bony pelvis/ ode to michael jackson
silence equals death
madivinez
malden, massachusetts
seeing skinhead
elephant mourning
letter to my father (in english)
pray
desire
anahata
acknowledgments
biography
