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Prairie Fever
by
Mary Biddinger (Goodreads Author)
"Mary Biddinger is a beguiling shape-shifter, one who suffuses her writing with electricity and alacrity of language. I marvel at the elegant architecture and scope of each poem. The veritable menagerie of animals that visit these pages simply enchants: zebras, rhinos, marabou, goldfish, bears, and banana spiders. These poems bite and scare, ravish and delight. Prairie Fev...more
Paperback
Published
February 1st 2007
by Steel Toe Books
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While my focus went immediately to the prairie part of the title, it would have been better placed in the fever, for that is what this collection is...feverish. I read the poems in one long torrent of words and was nearly exhausted when I finished. These poems are tightly wound in both language and meaning. One gets the feeling that the speaker of each poem has been waiting a long time to say whatever has been kept still and silent for too long.
Woven of both first- and second-person points of vi...more
Woven of both first- and second-person points of vi...more
Nov 16, 2008
Rachel
added it
Mary Biddinger's poems are like small movies of plays Tennessee Williams never wrote because he wasn't a woman, but would have if he had been. The depth of characterization, the vivid settings and original language create a spell not easily shaken off. Rueful wisdom shines through many of these mini-memoir poems. A terrific read.
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The voices haunt and enchant.
In Prairie Fever you will encounter bar fights, lick whiskey from flasks, glimpse zebras and dead girls. Biddinger tells gritty, surreal stories of the rural Midwest. Somewhat of a formalist, she makes expert use of short lines, tight couplets, and Ghazals while letting loose in the occasional prose poem. As always, a thrilling read.
Jul 12, 2009
Elizabeth J.
added it
One of the best books of poetry I've read this year. I know these places. This poet is a force to be reckoned with.
One of the best first collections I've read. Biddinger is a poet to watch. She will have a great career.
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Recommends it for:
Ohioans, Midwesterners
Recommended to Grace by:
Honors English 11
Oct 02, 2012
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Mary Biddinger is the author of the poetry collections Prairie Fever (Steel Toe Books, 2007), Saint Monica (Black Lawrence Press, 2011), and O Holy Insurgency (Black Lawrence Press, 2011), and co-editor of The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics (University of Akron Press, 2011). Her poetry has recently appeared in Barrelhouse, Bat City Review, Blackbird, Devil's Lake, Forklift...more
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