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Fire Series
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Pub Date
Feb 17 2026
| Archive Date
Nov 20 2025
Description
Fire Series began as an experiment in working recursively through the specialized diction of fire investigators, using technical phrases such as “structured fire,” “foliage freeze,” and “fire interval” to generate poems. Fire is both destructive and regenerative; at times vengeful, at others cleansing. The first mention of fire in Genesis comes after Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. In Greek mythology, Prometheus steals fire from the gods for humankind. Fire becomes metaphorically layered—as knowledge, as desire, as anger. The book entertains the many strands of this fiery lineage as it undertakes a poetic investigation into grief and sex, loneliness and restlessness within intimacy, and language’s ability to make, unmake, and remake things.
Fire Series began as an experiment in working recursively through the specialized diction of fire investigators, using technical phrases such as “structured fire,” “foliage freeze,” and “fire...
Description
Fire Series began as an experiment in working recursively through the specialized diction of fire investigators, using technical phrases such as “structured fire,” “foliage freeze,” and “fire interval” to generate poems. Fire is both destructive and regenerative; at times vengeful, at others cleansing. The first mention of fire in Genesis comes after Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. In Greek mythology, Prometheus steals fire from the gods for humankind. Fire becomes metaphorically layered—as knowledge, as desire, as anger. The book entertains the many strands of this fiery lineage as it undertakes a poetic investigation into grief and sex, loneliness and restlessness within intimacy, and language’s ability to make, unmake, and remake things.
A Note From the Publisher
Kelly Hoffer is a poet and book artist. Her debut collection of poetry, Undershore, was selected by Diana Khoi Nguyen as the winner of the Lightscatter Press Prize. Her chapbook the photo I don’t write about was a Netsuke Micro Series Recipient. Her poetry was recognized as a finalist for the National Poetry Series in both 2020 and 2021. She currently teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan as the Helen Zell Visiting Professor in Poetry.
Kelly Hoffer is a poet and book artist. Her debut collection of poetry, Undershore, was selected by Diana Khoi Nguyen as the winner of the Lightscatter Press Prize. Her chapbook the photo I don’t...
A Note From the Publisher
Kelly Hoffer is a poet and book artist. Her debut collection of poetry, Undershore, was selected by Diana Khoi Nguyen as the winner of the Lightscatter Press Prize. Her chapbook the photo I don’t write about was a Netsuke Micro Series Recipient. Her poetry was recognized as a finalist for the National Poetry Series in both 2020 and 2021. She currently teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan as the Helen Zell Visiting Professor in Poetry.
Advance Praise
"Reading Kelly Hoffer’s Fire Series, I am reminded that Anne Carson, a poet as attentive to contradiction wrought within a feeling as Hoffer is, once declared in an interview: ‘If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it.’ And verse, as printing traditions go, is the field slashed and furrowed for that human life fleeing a feeling only to meet it at the exit of an expression. Composed as curious and patient acts of devotion, Hoffer’s poems are evidence for how she has remained interested in her own grieving as a way of attending another’s, and as a way of practicing the life-long arc of witness for the loss of both language and love that we all must learn. ‘How,’ she asks, ‘do I protect my mother from my lyric tendency?’ This is a collection that frets between mute grief and vociferous, feral desire to envision these not only as adventures of cognition and the nervous system, but also as gauntlets thrown to a feckless language that betrays us at the slightest provocation. Hoffer has turned, here, an ear to those wailing sounds of weeping and ecstasy until they combust into music. Fire Series is ablaze with lyrical demonstrations that a thought can only warm us if it flickers between certainty and doubt." -Divya Victor, author of CURB
"Reading Kelly Hoffer’s Fire Series, I am reminded that Anne Carson, a poet as attentive to contradiction wrought within a feeling as Hoffer is, once declared in an interview: ‘If prose is a house...
Advance Praise
"Reading Kelly Hoffer’s Fire Series, I am reminded that Anne Carson, a poet as attentive to contradiction wrought within a feeling as Hoffer is, once declared in an interview: ‘If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it.’ And verse, as printing traditions go, is the field slashed and furrowed for that human life fleeing a feeling only to meet it at the exit of an expression. Composed as curious and patient acts of devotion, Hoffer’s poems are evidence for how she has remained interested in her own grieving as a way of attending another’s, and as a way of practicing the life-long arc of witness for the loss of both language and love that we all must learn. ‘How,’ she asks, ‘do I protect my mother from my lyric tendency?’ This is a collection that frets between mute grief and vociferous, feral desire to envision these not only as adventures of cognition and the nervous system, but also as gauntlets thrown to a feckless language that betrays us at the slightest provocation. Hoffer has turned, here, an ear to those wailing sounds of weeping and ecstasy until they combust into music. Fire Series is ablaze with lyrical demonstrations that a thought can only warm us if it flickers between certainty and doubt." -Divya Victor, author of CURB
Marketing Plan
- National print and online review attention
- Print and online features
- Select author appearances
- Social media outreach
- Online promotion
- Feature at AWP 2026
- National print and online review attention
- Print and online features
- Select author appearances
- Social media outreach
- Online promotion
- Feature at AWP 2026
Available Editions
| EDITION |
Paperback |
| ISBN |
9780822967682 |
| PRICE |
$20.00 (USD)
|
| PAGES |
136
|
Available on NetGalley
NetGalley Reader
(PDF)
NetGalley Shelf App
(PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)
Download (PDF)
Additional Information
Available Editions
| EDITION |
Paperback |
| ISBN |
9780822967682 |
| PRICE |
$20.00 (USD)
|
| PAGES |
136
|
Available on NetGalley
NetGalley Reader
(PDF)
NetGalley Shelf App
(PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)
Download (PDF)
Average rating from 1 member
