Tree Heresies

by William Wright

William Wrights eighth collection of poems is an expansive personal journey that includes poems about subjects as varied as a farm woman forsaken by her husband, yellow jackets, insomnia, a mountain witch, salt marshes, a ditch filled with rainwater, and even a post-apocalyptic portrait of the last person on Earth. Beginning with Prologue, a piece that embeds a kaleidoscopic, novel-like vision of a small agricultural town and a few of its inhabitants, these poems capture the exterior world and recontextualize its many forms through a dreamlike logic, harnessing radiant imagery and strong aural texture through lines and words that stir both mind and heart. Here, Wright reveals how the most luminous forms often dwell in even the darkest subjects and images.

77 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2015

About the author

William Wright is author of seven collections of poetry: four full-length books, including Tree Heresies (Mercer University Press, forthcoming), Night Field Anecdote (Louisiana Literature Press, 2011), Bledsoe (Texas Review Press, 2011), and Dark Orchard (Texas Review Press, 2006, winner of the Breakthrough Poetry Prize). Wright’s chapbooks are Sleep Paralysis (Stepping Stones Press, 2012, Winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, selected by Kwame Dawes), Xylem & Heartwood (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and The Ghost Narratives (Finishing Line Press, 2008). Recent work can be found in The Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, Southern Poetry Review, Oxford American, Shenandoah, and many others. Wright is Series Editor and Volume Co-editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, a multivolume series celebrating contemporary writing of the American South, published by Texas Review Press. Additionally Wright serves as a contributing editor for Shenandoah, translates German poetry, and is editing three volumes, including Grit Po: Rough South Poetry (with Daniel Cross Turner). Wright won the 2012 Porter Fleming Prize in Literature.

Reviews

[Mark A Hutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am enjoying a season of poetry (both reading and writing). One poet that I have truly enjoyed is William Wright. This collection looks at nature and life from a unique perspective. Wright succeeds in presenting a "decontextualized" natural world - freed from "the romantic notions" that ordinarily occupy it. I appreciate his work as an artist. I highly recommend this collection.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich and full and dense in the best possible ways. The language sings, and the landscapes are haunting and beautiful.