Best Sellers:

Best Sellers:

Best Sellers:

Best Sellers:

Best Sellers:

Ordinary Beast | Bloodaxe Books
nicole-sealey-ordinary-beast

Nicole Sealey

Ordinary Beast

Nicole Sealey

Publication Date : 21 Sep 2023

ISBN: 9781780376653

Pages: 65
Size :216 x 138mm
Rights: World

A poet of existential magnitude, deep intellect and playful subversion, America’s Nicole Sealey writes poems that are restless in their empathic, succinct examination and lucid awareness of what it means to be human.

The ranging scope of enquiry undertaken in Ordinary Beast – at times philosophical, emotional, and experiential – is evident in each thrilling twist of image by the poet. In brilliant, often ironic lines that move from meditation to matter of fact in a single beat, Sealey’s voice is always awake to the natural world, to the pain and punishment of existence, to the origins and demises of humanity. Exploring notions of race, sexuality, gender, myth, history and embodiment with profound understanding, Sealey’s is a poetry that refuses to turn a blind eye or deny. It is a poetry of daunting knowledge.

Ordinary Beast was first published in the US by Ecco in 2017, and was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. This first UK edition of Nicole Sealey's debut collection is published by Bloodaxe in 2023 at the same time as her second book of poetry, The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, an excerpt from which won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2021.

‘Though these poems are attuned to their own devastation, they continue unapologetically with their own aspirations.’ – Claudia Rankine

'Nothing ordinary here. But beast? Yeah, that’s it. This thing has teeth.' – Patricia Smith

'Nicole Sealey is a poet for the ages, and this is a stunning debut.' – Tracy K. Smith

'These poems are marvels that should be read, re-read, and read aloud to others.' – Amy Tan

'These are poems of thrilling sonic and syntactical play, formal dexterity, mythmaking, and delight in the ordinary rendered strange by new juxtapositions.' – Natasha Trethewey

'Nicole Sealey is one of today’s most interesting poets... she steers us on a fantastic voyage through her infinitely brilliant mind.' – Essence Magazine

'Quietly profound, Sealey’s first collected work flows with an avid heart and mind through questions of love, inheritance, friendship, and family—things that sustain us from one day to the next, made more precious by their fragility.' – O, The Oprah Magazine

'ordinary beast showcases a versatile artist as she plumbs an array of themes – racial injustice and gender marginalization – by appropriating forms popularized by dead white guys: Plutarch, Shakespeare, Donne. Her variations are vigorous, beguiling… Ordinary Beast is a triumph, and we can look forward to future spectacular work from this extravagantly gifted poet.’ – Hamilton Cain, Leonard Prize Reviews

 

Nicole Sealey reads from Ordinary Beast at Ledbury Poetry Festival

Nicole Sealey read twelve poems from Ordinary Beast at Ledbury Poetry Festival on 2 July 2022. The poems included in her reading are: ‘the first person who will live to be one hundred and fifty years old has already been born’; ‘medical history’; ‘hysterical strength’; ‘candelabra with heads’; ‘in defense of “candelabra with heads”’; ‘heretofore unuttered’; ‘even the gods’; ‘imagine sisyphus happy’; ‘virginia is for lovers’; ‘unframed’; ‘cento for the night i said, “i love you”’ (extract); and ‘object permanence’.

Nicole Sealey reads ‘even the gods’ from Ordinary Beast

Nicole Sealey reads her poem ‘even the gods’ from Ordinary Beast. Part of the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation's Read By series of poetry films. Directed by Jean Coleman and produced in collaboration with 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center.

 

Ireland & EU: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin

  

BOOKS BY Nicole Sealey

The Ferguson Report: An Erasure

Nicole Sealey

The Ferguson Report: An Erasure

Publication Date : 21 Sep 2023

Read More   amazon.co.uk

RELATED BOOKS

American Blue
Incendiary Art
Selected Poems
The Mighty Stream

Related News & Publicity

News & Publicity


Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian

Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian

American poet Nicole Sealey's The Ferguson Report: An Erasure reviewed in The Guardian, Mslexia, Poetry London & The High Window; a poem from her debut Ordinary Beasts...

Read More  |  View All

Poetry Events


Nicole Sealey Readings & Workshops

Nicole Sealey Readings & Workshops

Nicole Sealey's joint online launch event from September 2023 is now on YouTube.

Read More  |  View All

Poetry Events


Launch reading by Jen Campbell, Courtney Conrad and Nicole Sealey

Launch reading by Jen Campbell, Courtney Conrad and Nicole Sealey

This online launch event was livestreamed on Tuesday 19 September 2023 and is now available to watch on YouTube.

Read More  |  View All

cart
CART
search
TITLE SEARCH

A-Z

AUTHORS

A-Z

CATEGORIES

View Larger Text