Overview

In these pointed and wide-ranging essays, Wendy Willis explores everything from personal resistance to the rise of political podcasts, civic loneliness to the exploitation of personal data, public outrage to the opioid crisis-all with a poet's gift for finding the sacred in the mundane, a hope in the dark. One of the country's sharpest obser

Full Product Details

Author:   Wendy Willis
Publisher:   Counterpoint
Imprint:   Counterpoint
ISBN:  

9781640091511

ISBN 10:   1640091513
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   05 February 2019
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION CHRONICLING THE HISTORY OF THE SIEGE Chronicling the History of the Siege: A Mid-Winter's Meditation on Resistance Living Among the Things: On Civic Loneliness A Million People on One String: Big Data and the Poetic Imagination The Night Sits Wherever You Are: On Transparency & Secrets I Hear the Place That Can't Be Named: One Writer's Reflections on the Right to Be Forgotten Tilt: On Public Outrage A GNOSTIC BILL OF RIGHTS A Gnostic Bill of Rights BECOMING CITIZEN Becoming Citizen Buying Our Way Home The Rim of the Wound: An Open Letter to the Students of Columbia University's Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board, with a Special Note to My Own Daughters Where the World I Know and the World I Fear Threaten to Meet Love Does Not Boast The Sacred & Profane of Vote by Mail I'd Have to Cry these Wounds to Mourn for Us THE WORLD MADE FLESH Reckoning with the Bros: Donald Trump, Robert Bly and Swimming in the Sea of Grief An All or Nothing Gamble: Vaclav Havel and his Spiritual Revolution These are Strange Times, My Dear: Considering Ai Weiwei's @Large The Word Made Flesh: On Encountering the Work of Marcel Broodthaers Peeping in the Crack under the Goddamn Door: One Citizen's Reflections on The Phenom that is S-Town 94 The Perfume of Resistance: A Talk Given at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs

Reviews

Praise for These Are Strange Times, My Dear Her best essays combine rigor with sensory observation, ranging widely among varied interests . . . A compassionate, measured voice that serves as an antidote to strident pontificating. --Kirkus Reviews Praise for A Long Late Pledge Winner of the 2017 Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize Willis creates an argument in favor of embracing the contradictions of contemporary America, and of recommitting to a new, messy, and self-aware patriotism in search of the ideals of democracy. These poems affirm that the political is personal, and that dissent, reengagement with democratic ideals, recognition of complexity, and a capacity for humor are all valuable when stitching together the flag of perfect imperfection. --Edward Derby, The Rumpus Praise for Blood Sisters of the Republic With a voice as uptown as it is down-home, Wendy Willis' splendid poems make one astonishing yet satisfying leap after another. Each line is chock-a-block with a jazzy, jostling sound all her own. This poet '. . . stands and keens / her tunneled silence, a burr in the mouth, smooth as oil . . .' The width and depth of her embrace is remarkable, her vision as fearless as her full-tilt music. --Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate and author of The Voluptuary Wendy Willis is a poet of serious heart, a fact of enormous importance to the political and personal terms of her first book. While her politics lie in a generosity of spirit, her affections border on the extravagant. There is something wonderfully wild at the center of her poems, a freedom earned by craft. Blood Sisters of the Republic is as much about its local life as it is about national conscience. Plentitude and complexity are the hallmarks of its voice. And love is its signature. --Stanley Plumly, author of Old Heart 'I was born under the sign of the pulp mill, ' writes Wendy Willis at the opening of this startlingly acrobatic collection. In poems that sing of a lineage 'maimed by plainness, ' her republic of bruised plums, sourdough starts, and black-capped chickadees is as ravaged as it is irresistible. It's a crowded, complicated, and often comical Republic. Her writing is like no one's I know. Her book is a homage to the exquisite madness of real life. --David Keplinger, author of The Prayers of Others Here's a full-out 21st century poet--wrangler with history, domestic confidante, disrupter of narratives, down-home storyteller, linguistic fire breather. Wendy Willis fills this striking book to bursting with the rich matter of home life and the world's grand, baffling sweep. --Greg Glazner, author of Opening the World What is this creature Wendy Willis calls Blood Sisters of the Republic? Let me offer a few excited observations: a compendium, an almanac, a miscellany. A genealogy both personal and broadly American. An investigation of loss. A lush, lyrical hymn to maddening and beloved communities that define us. Willis deftly inhabits a tremendous number of drives--the lyrically sensual, the intimately epistolary, the historiographic--but most central to the spirit of this stunning first collection is the drive to pay unceasing attention to the ruined and tender world. Blood Sisters of the Republic explodes all well-behaved notions of what a collection of poetry might contain, insisting on a vaster and more civic notion of the art form. --Lia Purpura, author of King Baby, and the winner of the 2008 Beatrice Hawley Award If a homesteader deep in the land grew poems, they would inhabit this book. If the wrangling urge of a bean seed in dark earth to split and lunge up-stem and delve down-root at once, they would be these incantations Willis has offered homegrown, tart as a wild blackberry, nutritious as wheat. Her way with words is resident and feral in one go, inventing lyric chants that feel by turns old, festive, settled, searing--and original, from the origin point of the human. It's as if a shaman disguised as the cathedral janitor told her to write without fear, tell her most secret and arresting stories, and she did. --Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared

Praise for These Are Strange Times, My Dear A self-described 'evangelist of the word,' lawyer and poet Willis dives deep in this collection of essays. Where else might one find mention of Thomas Jefferson and Harvey Weinstein (though not in the same essay)? . . . Indeed, in all of the essays, Willis offers a fresh perspective on many cultural tropes . . . For those who want to share a deeper experience of life, with all its loneliness and fragility, Willis is an apt companion. -Booklist Offers a unique vision for life in such challenging times . . . Willis's nuanced and interior approach to politics is a welcome departure from the harsh rhetoric so popular today. Even readers who disagree with her will appreciate her sincerity and experiences as a mother, lawyer, and author. -Library Journal Her best essays combine rigor with sensory observation, ranging widely among varied interests . . . A compassionate, measured voice that serves as an antidote to strident pontificating. -Kirkus Reviews [An] impassioned, wry perspective informs these essays, which sit at the intersection between the political and the personal. They're striking for their candor and willingness to consider complexity, whether she's pondering public protest or private sorrows. -Amy Wang, The Oregonian Praise for A Long Late Pledge Winner of the 2017 Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize Willis creates an argument in favor of embracing the contradictions of contemporary America, and of recommitting to a new, messy, and self-aware patriotism in search of the ideals of democracy. These poems affirm that the political is personal, and that dissent, reengagement with democratic ideals, recognition of complexity, and a capacity for humor are all valuable when stitching together the flag of perfect imperfection. --Edward Derby, The Rumpus Praise for Blood Sisters of the Republic With a voice as uptown as it is down-home, Wendy Willis' splendid poems make one astonishing yet satisfying leap after another. Each line is chock-a-block with a jazzy, jostling sound all her own. This poet '. . . stands and keens / her tunneled silence, a burr in the mouth, smooth as oil . . .' The width and depth of her embrace is remarkable, her vision as fearless as her full-tilt music. -Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate and author of The Voluptuary Wendy Willis is a poet of serious heart, a fact of enormous importance to the political and personal terms of her first book. While her politics lie in a generosity of spirit, her affections border on the extravagant. There is something wonderfully wild at the center of her poems, a freedom earned by craft. Blood Sisters of the Republic is as much about its local life as it is about national conscience. Plentitude and complexity are the hallmarks of its voice. And love is its signature. -Stanley Plumly, author of Old Heart 'I was born under the sign of the pulp mill,' writes Wendy Willis at the opening of this startlingly acrobatic collection. In poems that sing of a lineage 'maimed by plainness,' her republic of bruised plums, sourdough starts, and black-capped chickadees is as ravaged as it is irresistible. It's a crowded, complicated, and often comical Republic. Her writing is like no one's I know. Her book is a homage to the exquisite madness of real life. -David Keplinger, author of The Prayers of Others Here's a full-out 21st century poet-wrangler with history, domestic confidante, disrupter of narratives, down-home storyteller, linguistic fire breather. Wendy Willis fills this striking book to bursting with the rich matter of home life and the world's grand, baffling sweep. -Greg Glazner, author of Opening the World What is this creature Wendy Willis calls Blood Sisters of the Republic? Let me offer a few excited observations: a compendium, an almanac, a miscellany. A genealogy both personal and broadly American. An investigation of loss. A lush, lyrical hymn to maddening and beloved communities that define us. Willis deftly inhabits a tremendous number of drives-the lyrically sensual, the intimately epistolary, the historiographic-but most central to the spirit of this stunning first collection is the drive to pay unceasing attention to the ruined and tender world. Blood Sisters of the Republic explodes all well-behaved notions of what a collection of poetry might contain, insisting on a vaster and more civic notion of the art form. -Lia Purpura, author of King Baby, and the winner of the 2008 Beatrice Hawley Award If a homesteader deep in the land grew poems, they would inhabit this book. If the wrangling urge of a bean seed in dark earth to split and lunge up-stem and delve down-root at once, they would be these incantations Willis has offered homegrown, tart as a wild blackberry, nutritious as wheat. Her way with words is resident and feral in one go, inventing lyric chants that feel by turns old, festive, settled, searing-and original, from the origin point of the human. It's as if a shaman disguised as the cathedral janitor told her to write without fear, tell her most secret and arresting stories, and she did. -Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared

Praise for A Long Late Pledge Winner of the 2017 Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize Willis creates an argument in favor of embracing the contradictions of contemporary America, and of recommitting to a new, messy, and self-aware patriotism in search of the ideals of democracy. These poems affirm that the political is personal, and that dissent, reengagement with democratic ideals, recognition of complexity, and a capacity for humor are all valuable when stitching together the flag of perfect imperfection. --Edward Derby, The Rumpus Praise for Blood Sisters of the Republic With a voice as uptown as it is down-home, Wendy Willis' splendid poems make one astonishing yet satisfying leap after another. Each line is chock-a-block with a jazzy, jostling sound all her own. This poet '. . . stands and keens / her tunneled silence, a burr in the mouth, smooth as oil . . .' The width and depth of her embrace is remarkable, her vision as fearless as her full-tilt music. --Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate and author of The Voluptuary Wendy Willis is a poet of serious heart, a fact of enormous importance to the political and personal terms of her first book. While her politics lie in a generosity of spirit, her affections border on the extravagant. There is something wonderfully wild at the center of her poems, a freedom earned by craft. Blood Sisters of the Republic is as much about its local life as it is about national conscience. Plentitude and complexity are the hallmarks of its voice. And love is its signature. --Stanley Plumly, author of Old Heart 'I was born under the sign of the pulp mill, ' writes Wendy Willis at the opening of this startlingly acrobatic collection. In poems that sing of a lineage 'maimed by plainness, ' her republic of bruised plums, sourdough starts, and black-capped chickadees is as ravaged as it is irresistible. It's a crowded, complicated, and often comical Republic. Her writing is like no one's I know. Her book is a homage to the exquisite madness of real life. --David Keplinger, author of The Prayers of Others Here's a full-out 21st century poet--wrangler with history, domestic confidante, disrupter of narratives, down-home storyteller, linguistic fire breather. Wendy Willis fills this striking book to bursting with the rich matter of home life and the world's grand, baffling sweep. --Greg Glazner, author of Opening the World What is this creature Wendy Willis calls Blood Sisters of the Republic? Let me offer a few excited observations: a compendium, an almanac, a miscellany. A genealogy both personal and broadly American. An investigation of loss. A lush, lyrical hymn to maddening and beloved communities that define us. Willis deftly inhabits a tremendous number of drives--the lyrically sensual, the intimately epistolary, the historiographic--but most central to the spirit of this stunning first collection is the drive to pay unceasing attention to the ruined and tender world. Blood Sisters of the Republic explodes all well-behaved notions of what a collection of poetry might contain, insisting on a vaster and more civic notion of the art form. --Lia Purpura, author of King Baby, and the winner of the 2008 Beatrice Hawley Award If a homesteader deep in the land grew poems, they would inhabit this book. If the wrangling urge of a bean seed in dark earth to split and lunge up-stem and delve down-root at once, they would be these incantations Willis has offered homegrown, tart as a wild blackberry, nutritious as wheat. Her way with words is resident and feral in one go, inventing lyric chants that feel by turns old, festive, settled, searing--and original, from the origin point of the human. It's as if a shaman disguised as the cathedral janitor told her to write without fear, tell her most secret and arresting stories, and she did. --Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared

Author Information

Wendy Willis is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. Winner of the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, she has published two books of poetry. Willis is a lawyer, the executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and the founder and director of Oregon's Kitchen Table at Portland State University.

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