Lexington’s Chevy Chaser Magazine annually collects a list of books by local authors that it recommends for the holiday shopping season. In this year’s Literary Roundup, Bianca Spriggs recommends Frank X Walker’s About Flight and Circe’s Lament: Anthology of Wild Women Poetry.
On About Flight:
Just when you think you know what to expect from a Frank X Walker poetry collection, this highly decorated former Kentucky poet laureate and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets releases a slender tome of heavy-hitting autobiographical poems that revolve around the heartbreak of bearing witness to a family member’s crippling addiction. These poems lament and mourn, yes, but most of all, they do not back away or flinch from the sobering topic of substance abuse and the lingering effects someone’s addiction can have on their family.
On Circe’s Lament:
Whether religious text, classical epic, or family lore, narratives of so-called “wild women” such as Circe of “The Odyssey” still give readers the urge to speculate about legendary women, from Amazon to roots-worker, goddess to gunslinger. What compelled these fascinating women to act? What set them apart? This anthology boasts a collection of exhilarating women from poets from around the world who channel the infamous, the historical, the wild woman next door – and even the one in the mirror.
The list also includes National Book Award Finalist Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions) by Ada Limón and Trampoline (Ohio University Press) by Robert Gipe (who was one of the featured readers at Holler Poets Series 84).
For more information, you can read the full write-up by clicking here.
The recording begins with music. At about 3m24s, it cuts to a coffee shop interview with Matthew Haughton. At one point, Rachel Short interrupts the interview to say that traffic is heavy and that Bianca is on her way.
