20,

by Jennifer Roche, Hosho McCreesh (Illustrator)

First serialized in a French periodical between March 1869 and June 1870, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea forever changed not only the arena of fiction as we knew it, but our relationship to the sea. Considered by most to be one of the earliest works of science fiction, Verne’s imaginative, wondrous novel has lent itself to hundreds of translations and interpretations the world over, introducing new generations to a fathomless world of infinite mystery and unearthly beauty from the depths. In the twenty-first century, however, it’s hard to imagine the bottomless ocean without the comprehension of all the harm and shifts that humans have wrought to this natural marvel from which all life sprang.
 
In text artist and poet Jennifer Roche’s erasure of Verne’s classic, this contemporary sensibility and awareness meets the adventurous realm of an ancient underwater sci-fi. With a mix of mourning, precaution, awe, and fascination, Roche has given urgent context to old words, and ignited them with new breath. Pulling in our post-industrial world on the cusp of the Anthropocene, with its gun violence, refugees, war, overstuffed prisons, climate change, and destruction of natives—both human and nonhuman alike—Roche has begged of us a furious calling to protect and cherish the seas that swirl around us. She has transformed a classic into fresh work that stands on its own merit, reaching into the past to speak to our troubling modern times, and reminding us: the sea is everything.

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/20roche

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Jennifer Roche is a poet, writer, and text artist who lives in Chicago, IL.

She is the author of “20,” a chapbook of erasure poems from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Alternating Current Press). Her chapbook, "The Synonym Tables," will be published in 2021 by The Poetry Question.

Her work has appeared in Storm Cellar; Tule Review; Footnote: A Literary Journal of History (#2); Oyez Review; Rain, Party & Disaster Society; and Ghost Ocean. The Chicago Guild Literary Complex named her a "Writer to Watch in 2019 & Beyond,” and she was a 2016 Charter Oak Award Semifinalist for Best Historical writing.

Photo credit: Mary Rafferty

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. Heart.

This collection of erasure poems, pulled from the very pages of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels, is everything.

Absolutely. Everything.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

"icebergs clad with fur defied their death."

This multimedia collection of erasure poems and fragmented illustrations forces the imagination to be at work, to fill in the empty spaces, to zoom out of the frames. It's a wondrous work that uses 20,000 Leagues as source material and runs with it, making its own unique voyage.

"I saw a single canoe floating in open promise filled with midas-ears, ordinary shells / What is discovery? but the contemplation of our treasure"

[Kelly Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply extraordinary. This text artist and poet is an exquisite observer of the worlds, above and below the surface, in all of us. Her imagination, her grace, her urgency moved me beyond words. This work sits on my end table to remind me every single day.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A captivating short collection of erasure poems that surprise with starkness and immediacy while turning an interesting light onto the material from which they've been carved, too.

Highlights: "Sandy Hook," "The Breathing Apparatus," "Whiteness," "Locked Up," "A Few Days On Land," "The South Pole."

[Chris L. Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible combination of the erasure form and a classic novel.

[Laura Eppinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating work, it made me feel like there were hidden messages (maybe "buried treasure") in the source text. I gasped at the beauty!