Penguin Noir
by Nicelle Davis
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Pub Date Jul 15 2025 | Archive Date Not set
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Description
Winner! Changing Light Novel-in-verse Contest! “a view of life under a man-made ego-system,” The Sea of Wonders, in which poet Nicelle Davis queries the implications of preserving (penguin) lives when the world that would support them is becoming unlivable and our relationship to them increasingly mediated (“So many images of nature, we struggle ever to make it outside”). Wry, yearning, exasperated, this play-in-verse with bold paintings by artist Cheryl Gross and dramatic monologues of individual Emperor, Gentoo, and other penguins dares us to look penguins (and, by extension, the world) in the eye and ‘fess up to the mess we’ve made. Sharp, eviscerating wit will keep you rubbernecking the spectacle Davis walks us through."
--Elizabeth Bradfield,
Available Editions
EDITION | Paperback |
ISBN | 9781604894035 |
PRICE | $19.95 (USD) |
PAGES | 72 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

By the time I had reached climax, I was already so inmersed on the story I could not put it down. I wanted to know everything about these penguins and their lives. I empathized with them, I became one with the penguins. Lastly, I would like to say that the illustrations inside the book match the poems perfectly and that both the author and the illustrator did a great work.

The collection's hybrid form—a "play-in-verse"—allows Davis to utilize theatrical techniques that heighten the spectacle of ecological catastrophe while maintaining intimate emotional resonance. The author's language oscillates between wry observation and raw exasperation, creating a rhythmic tension that mirrors the precarious existence of her penguin protagonists.
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