Still Falling
Poems
by Jennifer Grotz
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Pub Date May 02 2023 | Archive Date Apr 30 2023
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Description
A searching new collection by a poet who “pays exquisite attention to everything she encounters” (The Washington Post)
Still Falling expands on Jennifer Grotz’s precise sense of craft and voice to investigate new territory in this astonishing collection. These poems are emotionally raw and introspective, exploring the profound capaciousness of grief. Grotz carefully and deftly carries the weight of losses and their aftermaths—the deaths of the poet’s mentors, friends, and mother; the endings of relationships; and the enclosures of a life spent in attendance to the world in a state of wanting rather than truly living. Here also are poems that movingly and crucially decide what dedicating one’s life to poetry might require.
But in the wake of painful loss, Grotz writes toward “this world, the living.” Her poems reveal and meditate on the paradoxical relationship between the literal and the figurative, at the heart of poetry itself, like the darkness and light of Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro. Still Falling is a book to be read slowly, calling readers back into the stillness of being, finding hope, “not death / where darkness and silence and dust are / only darkness and silence and dust.”
Advance Praise
“Still Falling is an undeniably gorgeous book of love poems full of grief. In these pages, Jennifer Grotz writes line after line of direct statement in rhythms that would leave any reader breathless and wanting more. . . . I am in awe of Grotz’s power to grow and transform book after book. I cannot read Still Falling without crying.”—Jericho Brown
“Bestowing many moving and lyrical insights, this deserves to be read slowly and compassionately.”—Publishers Weekly
"Coming from deep inside, these poems work by free association, often alluding to falling rain, snow, and even sunlight pouring onto a surface, all of which add a spiritual resonance to these hypnotic and meditative poems."—Diane Schraper, Library Journal
Marketing Plan
National publicity campaign
Targeted digital and social media advertising
US tour: Rochester, NY; New York, NY; Houston, TX
National publicity campaign
Targeted digital and social media advertising
US tour: Rochester, NY; New York, NY; Houston, TX
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781644452318 |
| PRICE | $16.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 72 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Samantha H, Reviewer
AGH, I loved this one so much.
I am so thankful to Graywolf Press, Jennifer Grotz, and NetGalley for granting me advanced access to this beauty of a book before it publishes on May 2, 2023. I was truly captivated by the heartbreaking prose and metaphors that were presented over the course of these 50+ pages.
Monica R, Bookseller
We humans tend to meditate on our grief as a form of healing, and that is, too, how this collection is conveyed in summary to its audience, at least at first.
However, delve into the first work in this collection and you will find a poet's love for life, for living, for experience, in the midst of this careful, observant narration.
Grotz's voice is candid, lyrical in a way that does not mince words but rather dives deeply into each intentional selection, spinning an intermingled story that, while relatively simple and familiar in nature, is anything but in meaning. Relating to the reader in every recognizable, spare moment that we find present in our own lives, the speaker here finds herself among the audience even as she is creating the words themselves.
A major proponent of this work, too, is its careful attention to form and phrase, the specific and attentive use of each word, the success in encapsulating every in-between moment that is apt to be forgotten if not chronicled.
All of this gives this collection a distinction when reading; the poems nearly leap off the page, each break steadfastly deliberate and nearly vocalized for the reader in physical form with the veracity of the choices made here.
Grotz is a great talent, and her work speaks for itself with no hesitation, creating a truly encompassing work that slips from one piece to the next without pause or interruption, for how well they meld together.
It is perhaps with some bias that I admit that this collection is dear to my heart because in it I recognize my own longing for capturing everything in verse, and this is truly one of the biggest proponents of this work.
Observation, interaction with each small moment, a pondering of each characterization and consideration, all amount to a volume of poems not meant to be read quickly, but rather to be consumed in silence and contemplation, a resonance with the beautiful work within these pages.
Thank you again to Graywolf for the ARC! I think this will be a great fit for the bookstore, and look forward to adding it to our shelves.
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