Particles of a Stranger Light

by Anthony Sutton

“Anthony Sutton’s debut book is haunted by the old, existential question no one has yet been able to answer satisfactorily: Who or what am I? Rimbaud proclaimed, Je est un autre or I is another. Sutton updates Rimbaud with wry postmodern panache. In one poem, his I is a “Mixed White/Filipino Poet” who “Interrogates the Basic Notion of ‘Passing’ and then Accepts Being Read as a Latinx Woman.” In others, he is the zombie who has lost his identity after being “roofied.” He is also the person who knows “if I had a god to pray to // it would be the light fixture / in the jail cell I spent most / of a day in.” All I know is that I want to keep reading and rereading these lovely, strange, wise, and wise-cracking selves that Sutton invents for himself in Particles of a Stranger Light. This virtuoso book passes like a Category 5 hurricane through our consciousness and, if you let it, will rearrange who you are.”



—Donald Platt, author of Swansdown

Genres: Poetry

66 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2023

Reviews

[L Y N N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hearing Anthony read these himself and commenting on the context, etc., was a beautiful experience. I can only hope he has continued success!

[Ilana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Electrifying

[K. Iver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved these. No one sounds like Anthony Sutton! Will be thinking about this book for a while.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voice of a generation