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The Blue Hour
by Jennifer Whitaker
University of Wisconsin Press, 2016 Paper: 978-0-299-30864-3 Library of Congress Classification PS3623.H5626A6 2016 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Fairy tales both familiar and obscure create a threshold, and the The Blue Hour pulls us over it. With precise language and rich detail, these poems unflinchingly create an eerie world marked by abuse, asking readers not just to bear witness but to try to understand how we make meaning in the face of the meaningless violence. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jennifer Whitaker is the director of the University Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and assistant poetry editor for storySouth. This is her first book. REVIEWS
“The Blue Hour casts a blue spell, using the tropes and gestures of traditional fairy tales—riddles, disguises, wishes, shape-shifting, entrapment, escape, and transformation—to trace a daughter’s experience of incestuous abuse. With language as sonically and somatically intricate as the subject she narrates, Whitaker looks unflinchingly at an ancient taboo and the infinite hour of its endurance.”—Lisa Russ Spaar, author of Vanitas, Rough
“Whitaker’s skills with sentence and sound, with spare yet suggestive language, with telling juxtapositions, with metaphor and misdirection, make the unbearable bearable just long enough that it can be seen, contained, and transcended. These are riveting poems, hard won, from a poet of exceptional talent.”—Jim Peterson, author of Original Face
“Like a banked fire stoked into a blaze, The Blue Hour contains the power to warm you up and burn you down. I am enthralled by the stunning grace of Jennifer Whitaker’s vision. A spectacular debut.”—Camille T. Dungy, author of Smith Blue
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments Last Poem about My Father I. The Invention of Childhood Something He’d Do The Look of It Father as Barred Owl Strange Sister Story That Begins and Ends with Burning Through the Vines Habit The Invitation The Lesson The Birth Premature Mother as Blossoming Vine False Season In the Sick Room Father as Map of the World Father as Ribbon in My Hair Rumpelstiltskin The Gown Story in Which the Daughter Waits for the Hunter to Return Daughter as Collection of Words Mount Vernon Story That Begins with a Bat Falling Dead Blue Hour II. Snow White as Apology from My Youth Daughter as Painted Boy Collusion Cinderella as Wish That Comes True Daughter as Sister in Many Layers Story in Which the Daughter Briefly Encounters Providence Rapunzel Mother’s Foxes Throat-Song Story in Which We Scream at the Daughter to Stop Aubade Daughter as Pallid Bat in the Attic Daughter as Pig in the House Letter to My Father as Severed Goat Head Letter to My Father as Month of August What to Wear to a Father’s Funeral Letter to My Father as Robin in the Field Home Fairgrounds Father as Distant Boat Father as Suit of Armor In the Marriage Season Letter to My Father as Theropod Exhibit Letter to My Father in the Blue Hour Notes
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If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
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