It was created by Design Center Studio and hand-printed by Counterproof Press.
Students printed one of Claudia Rankine’s poems as a limited-edition letterpress broadside. In the years since then, the Program has brought a roster of the most important national and international poets of the last five decades to Connecticut. Its written as prose poetry, I would have just called them vignettes but I obviously dont know enough about the genre.The Wallace Stevens Poetry Program at the University of Connecticut began in 1964 with funding from The Hartford to honor Modernist master poet Wallace Stevens, a former Vice-President at that company. It is a short book but it’s not something to fly through, something to sit with and reflect on in a few sittings I would recommend this with no hesitation. Although often sorrowful, the simplicity and clarity of writing makes it so captivating. Even though published post 9/11, 16 years ago, she could have written it yesterday- it feels very current. At a time when death rates were being broadcast as part of a daily routine, it was a stark reminder that lives are not stats. At any time, this book would have kept me in my thoughts. Parts of the book begged a second or third re-read. The book is a series of reflections where Rankine somehow intertwines her thoughts about bereavement and isolation, American society, TV images she has taken in and everyday impacts of Big Pharma.
Some of the ideas and sentiments are so recognisable but not necessarily in the way Rankine has presented them.
The quote really sums up my feelings about alot of the book. “Sometimes you read something and a thought that was floating around in your veins reorganises itself into the sentence that reflects it” Now I know I have just been missing out on Claudia Rankine all this time for no good reason!
I was gifted Citizen for Christmas a few years ago and still haven’t read it yet! For some reason, I came across this book, bought it and read it straight away.
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