Overview

The Cloud Understands Our Scarecrow Hearts by Jonathan Travelstead is a spellbinding poetry collection that navigates the fragile, electrifying intersection of humanity and technology. With a foreword by Sequoia Nagamatsu that illuminates Travelstead's life and artistic vision, the collection delves into the uncharted territories of the human spirit as it grapples with the infinite possibilities-and terrifying implications-of scientific progress and cosmic mysteries. Divided into four compelling sections, the poems weave together existential questions, the looming shadow of technological singularity, and the relentless search for meaning in a universe as wondrous as it is indifferent. From intimate reflections to soaring explorations of science fiction and popular culture, Travelstead's work pulses with vivid imagery and bold imagination, inviting readers to confront the unknown with both awe and unease. The Cloud Understands Our Scarecrow Hearts is more than a collection of poem-it's an odyssey through the heart of human existence at the edge of the digital frontier. Prepare to be challenged, inspired, and utterly transformed by this extraordinary exploration of what it means to be human in an ever-expanding cosmos.

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9781965784082

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Reviews

Taken as a whole, The Cloud Understands Our Scarecrow Hearts is a mediation through time and space from a poetic mind caught within the foam between universes. This is a siren call from deep space (but also the space right in front of us) that is asking us to think about who we are, what we value, and how we might save ourselves. Both expansive and deeply personal, Travelstead has given us a timely and timeless collection of poems that tells the story of us. Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK

Author Information

Jonathan Travelstead served in the Air Force for six years as a firefighter and he currently works as a full-time City firefighter in Murphysboro, Illinois. He also sculpts jewelry as a goldsmith under his business name, Travelstead Studios. He has a wife and infant son, without whose support his work would surely suffer. He received his MFA in narrative poetry in Illinois, and worked as poetry editor for Expressions, Grassroots, and, most recently, Cobalt Press. His work has been published in numerous literary journals and won a number of prizes, not the least of which were the Roxana Rivera Memorial Poetry Contest, and the Gwendolyn Brooks Emerging Writers Competition chosen by poet laureate Kevin Stein.His first collection HOW WE BURY OUR DEAD by Cobalt Press was released in March, 2015, and CONFLICT TOURS (Cobalt Press) was released in 2017. SEQUOIA NAGAMATSU is the author of the National Bestselling novel, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK (2022), a New York Times Editors' Choice, and the story collection, WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE (2016). His work has appeared in publications such as Conjunctions, The Southern Review, ZYZZYVA, Tin House, Iowa Review, Lightspeed Magazine, and One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories, and has been listed as notable in Best American Non-Required Reading and the Best Horror of the Year. Other honors include a fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and shortlist inclusions for The Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, the Ursula K Le Guin Prize, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, as well as long list inclusions for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, The Dublin Literary Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. He was educated at Grinnell College (BA) and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (MFA), and he teaches creative writing at Saint Olaf College and the Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA program. He is originally from O'ahu, Hawaiʻi and the San Francisco Bay Area and currently lives in Minneapolis with his wife, the writer Cole Nagamatsu, their cat Kalahira, their real dog Fenris, and a Sony Aibo robot dog named Calvino. He is at work on two other novels.

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