“Stupid Hope is
a generous, entertaining, and disturbing collection by a poet who left us all
too soon. On full display is Shinder’s gift for confronting the truths of sex
and sickness, lust, and the betrayal of the body from within—all part of a
search for the path that will lead him out of loneliness and into love.”
—BILLY COLLINS
“Not so far from the end of his life, William
Maxwell said that he was “living with all the doors and windows open.” That
seems an exact description of the situation of Stupid Hope, which is not only Jason Shinder’s best book but an
indelible contribution to the literature of illness, of how it is to stand on the edge of living. Somehow
both shell-shocked and luminously clear, Shinder’s last poems startle, again
and again, with their nakedness and clarity. They are both heartbreaking
testaments and not about loss at all, but about being here, in this moment,
entirely awake.”
—MARK DOTY
“Stupid Hope,
Jason Shinder’s third and final book of poetry, is a gutsy, gimlet-eyed,
frustrating book of poetry…. Life’s harder without poetry like this.”
