Americana

by T.J. Beitelman

Poetry. "In TJ Beitelman's poems, 'everything's a powder / keg, ' where everyday occurrences explode into expressions of joy and heartache. AMERICANA begins with an examination of American icons and institutions, then moves out in widening circles to encompass everything from Greek myth to global politics. Here you'll find strange bedfellows Bogart and the Big Bang, Hank Aaron and Buddhism, Hezbollah and Frank O'Hara drawn together by Beitelman's nimble mind. Full of surprising turns and observations, AMERICANA is a wide-eyed view of the extraordinary world around us, one most of us rarely have the capacity to see." Mark Neely"

71 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2015

About the author

TJ Beitelman is the author of a novel, John the Revelator, a collection of short stories, Communion, and three poetry collections, This Is the Story of His Life, Americana, and In Order to Form a More Perfect Union, all published by Black Lawrence Press. His hybrid memoir, Self-Helpless: A Misfit's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, is available through Outpost 19. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in Posit, DIAGRAM, Blackbird, Quarterly West, New Orleans Review, and other places, and he's received artist's fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where he directs the Creative Writing program at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

Reviews

[Kwoya Maples · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite collections by Beitelman. Americana is a lyric map of a life worth writing about.