One Perfect Bird is available for purchase!
OK, so you are probably tired of hearing about this, but, it’s getting real: My book, One Perfect Bird, is now out for purchase from Sundress Publications!
Official Press Release Ahoy!
One Perfect Bird
A Collection of Poems by Letitia Trent
Knoxville, TN— Sundress Publications is pleased to announce the release of Letitia Trent’s One Perfect Bird (Sundress Publications $14.99) on January 1, 2012. This is Letitia’s first full-length collection of poetry. Trent is also the author of two chapbooks, Splice and The Medical Diaries, and a third, You aren’t in this movie, to be out in 2012.
“Reading these poems I was reminded of the voice and vision of Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. Similarly, the emotional and psychological rawness of human thought, as crafted by Letitia Trent in surprising, elusive, and innovative lines, startles us into a recognition so profound, we’re not entirely sure what we’re reading or if we’re reading. It’s a pleasing and unsettling experience—and I daresay, what literature should and can be.”
- Kathy Fagan, author of Lip
In Letitia Trent’s debut collection, the poems unfold like wildflowers in the spring, each one more surprising and dazzling than the last. But they are not simply a fleeting beauty, but rather a voracious and heated sort that stays with you long after you’ve closed the book. These poems, rooted deeply in the places they explore, are impeccably constructed and bitingly honest. This is a collection from a new voice that must be heard.
“The poems in One Perfect Bird ride like a dirty living letter in a good, clean envelope. They are the silty Tang in our cups, the color of the hunters’ vests like ribbons through the birches as they searched our forest for any rusty bursts of blood. They are primarily poltergeists; mesh net masks and subtly singing beards, bee bodies slipping from their chins like honey. If it’s true that I lifted all these lines of praise from the lines in Letitia Trent’s poems—and it is true—then who could blame me? For the lyricism required to describe them, I can’t better their maker. No one could.”
- Kyle Minor, author of In the Devil’s Territory
Letitia Trent was the recipient of the 2010 Alumni Flash Writing Award from Ohio State University’s The Journal. She has also been awarded fellowships to The Vermont Studio Center and the MacDowell Colony. One Perfect Bird is currently available for pre-order through Sundress Publications at sundresspublications.com.
I hate it when old people, such as myself, post on old videos on youtube with comments like “They don’t make music like this anymore! Now it’s all Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber”. I guess old people forget that even in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, pop music was pretty bad, too, or at least equally vapid, sexist, or anything else you might want to label it. If you are commenting on a Screaming Trees video about how awesome music used to be, then you are seriously having some 90’s nostalgia. And, dude, almost every indie band right now sounds like they come from the 90’s or from an 80’s Projekt label album or like a love child of Hope Sandoval and Jeff Buckley. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart sound more like The Smashing Pumpkins than The Smashing Pumpkins ever did.*
Speaking of 90’s nostalgia, I clearly need to move to Portland, where the dream of the 90’s is still alive. I watched this show for the first time with Z last night. It makes me miss Vermont, which is even more exaggeratedly organic/local bookstore/plastic bags are evil/let’s walk to the grocery store/wow, let’s sign up for this meditation retreat! than even the jokey Portland of the show.
My cat is at the vet and I feel awful. I’m going to have to drive to get her, which is nerve-wracking. Since my accident, I’m even more afraid of driving than before, but I know I need to deal with it now or it will just get worse a and worse.
*Wait, there is a different band that these guys sound exactly like to me, crossed with the Smashing Pumpkins. Maybe Slowdive? But not quite.
brightwalldarkroom:
I WEAR THE CHAINS I FORGED IN LIFE
by Letitia Trent
Unlike most kids between eight and twelve, I dreaded Christmas break more than I dreaded school, and I dreaded school almost every day to the level of sickness. Dread made my stomach churn while on the inevitably long bus rides (we always…
It’s my essay about my very favorite Christmas movie!
Damn, I love this movie.
Movies I Still Need to Watch
I need to catch up on so many movies. Here is a list for myself & for you, which I will probably add to:
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Skin I Live In
Drive
Take Shelter
Certified Copy
The Future
A Dangerous Method
Meek’s Cutoff
Warriors
The Interrupters
Project Nim
I am excited about every one of these movies. God, I wish I had hours and hours and hours to spend watching movies and writing and reading. I don’t know how many times I say this (a lot), but it’s true.
All, you can pre-order my book, One Perfect Bird, from Sundress Publications.
Here are some poems from the book, if you want to try-before-you-buy:
Poemelon
As it Ought to Be
Juked
southtwelfth:
Here’s a still from a short science-fiction film I’ve just made. It’s about a handsome present-day dirt farmer from Texas that travels back in time to 1994 to fight in the culture wars. But here’s the twist: it turns out it was 2011 the whole time.
To further illustrate this twist, I have cast Newt Gingrich in it, as well.
This screams truth and awesome.
brightwalldarkroom:
TAKE ME TO THE RIVER.
by Letitia Trent
Keanu Reeves’ brand of blank-faced, affectless, trying really hard acting is easy to mock: you’ve probably intoned “I know Kung Fu” at least once since The Matrix came out. His presence as a pretty-but-not-terribly-talented actor can hide the…
Oh, it’s Keanu Reeves week, you guys, and the best is yet to come, but here’s my River’s Edge essay to whet your appetite for the Keenster.
brightwalldarkroom:
Coming next week to BWDR:
KEANU REEVES WEEK
Why? Because we can.
Yes, this is happening you guys.
brightwalldarkroom:
A Bright Wall in a Dark Room has joined the Twitter masses. You know what that means. Follow us here!
Ya’ll, I hear that Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey is coming up soon, so really, you need to get with the BWDR twitter and immediately know when a new fabulous essay is up.
I’ve got some poems up at Poemeleon, yo, along with other awesomepoets like Sherman Alexie, Martha Silano, Tony Trigilio, Michelle Bitting, etc!
These poems will be in my upcoming book “One Perfect Bird”, by the way, in case you want to, like, rush out and read more of the same (though you gotta wait until January).
I want all of these adorable outfits, goddamit, and also to live in Sweden, because Elsa Billgren makes it look like it’s full of little cakes, whimsy, and beautiful people with extreme makeup and vintage clothes and pretty books with creamy paper and nobody has a tan. This is basically the dream world in my head.
(Source: flamingosaremean-moved)
A few things
Awesome things right now:
1. Fantomatik features great artists/photographers, but I like this list of photographs of geniuses, particularly Collette with a flaming cake.
2. This Kazhuo Ishiguro story is basically the kind of writing I wish I did, but don’t, because I like to explain too much.
3. My sister and I put up the Christmas tree. Here we are sitting in front of it. This looks like a Wal Mart family photo, but it cracks me up, so I will show you:
Kimmy got the good hair and cute bangs.
I am so back
Things I plan to write about/think about in this very space this week:
1. My sort of love for Harold Bloom even though he is a jerk and absurdly married to the canon and even bloviates while committing sexual harassment (i.e. “You have the aura of election about you”), but God, he really believes in the importance of literature, and I want more people to have that passion. But not all the other stuff.
2. Why I want my next poetry collection to be a film in verse, and if that is even possible.
3. My love for David Lynch, even Crazy Clown Time
