"Going in circles is structural ... in Ian Williams’s Word Problems, a challenge in this case not of nature but of white supremacist culture and its enforcement. —Event Magazine
"His word play is always in the service of a deadly seriousness, and recognizing the issues is critical to an improvement in relations among human beings." —The Ormsby Review
From Ian Williams, author of Reproduction, winner of the Giller Prize and a June 2020 Indie Next Great Read
Frustrated by how tough the issues of our time are to solve – racial inequality, our pernicious depression, the troubled relationships we have with other people – Ian Williams revisits the seemingly simple questions of grade school for inspiration: if Billy has five nickels and Jane has three dimes, how many Black men will be murdered by police? He finds no satisfaction, realizing that maybe there are no easy answers to ineffable questions.
Williams uses his characteristic inventiveness to find not just new answers but new questions, reconsidering what poetry can be, using math and grammar lessons to shape poems that invite us to participate. Two long poems cut through the text like vibrating basenotes, curiosities circle endlessly, and microaggressions spin into lyric. And all done with a light touch and a joyful sense of humour.
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“[Ian Williams] blends personal emotion with historical tension, tradition and modernity, ordinary and magical so seamlessly. When he pulls the strings of contradictions: light and heavy, hilarious and serious, I can’t help but dance like a happy puppet in the masterful hands. I’m so happy to find another shining star above Canada’s poetry horizon!” —Griffin Prize Judges Citation on Personals
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Excerpts to be placed it notable literary journals and blogs.
Online and in person readings with the author and translator.
Interviews with the author for literary media and on the Coach House website.
Co-op available.
Print and digital galleys available.
Galleys available at Winter Institute and ALA Midwinter Meeting.
Online/social media campaign.
eBook available at same time as print publication.
eBook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed.
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Norman drops part of his Hostess cupcake on the floor. He doesn’t want to get in trouble. If he picks it up and places it on his plate he will have to eat it. If he picks it up and places it on the placemat he will have to explain that he dropped it on the floor. He still wants to eat it. Yet he should not eat food that has fallen on the floor. Will the surveillance video be enough to convict the officer who shot his father?
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781552454145
Publisert
2020-11-26
Utgiver
Coach House Books; Coach House Books
Høyde
203 mm
Bredde
127 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
112
Forfatter