{"product_id":"horsepower-poems-paperback","title":"Horsepower: Poems - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJoy Priest\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePriest's debut collection, \u003ci\u003eHorsepower\u003c\/i\u003e, is a cinematic escape narrative that radically envisions a daughter's waywardness as aspirational. Across the book's three sequences, we find the black-girl speaker in the midst of a self-imposed exile, going back in memory to explore her younger self-a mixed-race child being raised by her white supremacist grandfather in the shadow of Churchill Downs, Kentucky's world-famous horseracing track-before arriving in a state of self-awareness to confront the personal and political landscape of a harshly segregated Louisville. Out of a space that is at once southern and urban, violent and beautiful, racially-charged and working-class, she attempts to transcend her social and economic circumstances. Across the collection, Priest writes a horse that acts as a metaphysical engine of flight, showing us how to throw off the harness and sustain wildness. Unlike the traditional Bildungsroman, Priest presents a non-linear narrative in which the speaker lacks the freedom to come of age naively in the urban South, and must instead, from the beginning, possess the wisdom of \"the horses \u0026amp; their restless minds.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eFROM \"RODEO\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The four-wheeler is a chariot. Horse-wraiths\u003cbr\u003e Kicking up a plume of spirits in the dirt behind us.\u003cbr\u003e Her arms kudzu around my middle. Out here, \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the desert, everything is invisible.\u003cbr\u003e Only the locusts' flat buzz gives\u003cbr\u003e Them away. Everything native \u0026amp; quieting \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Perennial \u0026amp; nighthawk black\u003cbr\u003e As we ride through: the cowgirls, \u003cbr\u003e The witch \u0026amp; the water sky-mirror-split, \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The severity of squall lines. Also, the lips\u003cbr\u003e Parting air like lightning \u0026amp; the girl\u003cbr\u003e Blowing bubbles-in each one\u003cbr\u003e a rainbow.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoy Priest is a writer from Louisville, KY. Her first book, \u003ci\u003eHORSEPOWER \u003c\/i\u003e(Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), was selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. She is the recipient of the 2020 Kunitz Prize and her work has appeared in the \u003ci\u003eAcademy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, APR\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoetry Northwest\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePoets \u0026amp; Writers\u003c\/i\u003e, among others. She is currently a doctoral student in Literature \u0026amp; Creative Writing at the University of Houston.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 68\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.3 x 8.9 x 5.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 22, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47382852534450,"sku":"9780822966197","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/9cb15ea8b051655c7e74a8ec78b9cc7b.webp?v=1777846012","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/horsepower-poems-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}