Ascension Theory

“Christopher Bolin has undertaken—beautifully and with immeasurable tact—the task of loving this world rightly and really. The task is endless, and he rejoices in it. The task is intricate, and his joy magnifies it in sublime detail. Ascension Theory is a lustrous book.”—Donald Revell, author, Tantivy

“The ravaged landscapes in Ascension Theory are suffused with speechlessness, isolation, and anonymity. Avalanches, vast tundras, birds, goods, and flags—things are nearly dead and icing over, becoming symbols before they ever existed in themselves. Alert to injury and the need for connection, Bolin presents a secular way of life haunted by lost powers of religion, myth, labor, and heroic action. The tremendous authority of these poems comes from their capacity to witness dissolution and repair, to capture illumination in those last seconds before it vanishes again.”—Joanna Klink, author, Raptus

"In Ascension Theory, Christopher Bolin has written a postmodern pastoral that is absolutely mesmerizing. The poems are set deep in a wintry rural world that appears barely encroached by humans. Here, Bolin meditates on the stark absence of spiritual sustenance and how in the face of such absence, we construct our own ersatz apparitions as a means of survival. Each poem is economical, scored with a silence that sings as finely as Bolin's richly imagined lines. Ascension Theory is an ambitious and wondrous debut."—Cathy Park Hong, author, Engine Empire