Keynote
Only legendary poet Harryette Mullen could make a book of our time’s dire crises this much fun to read
Book Title
Regaining Unconsciousness
Subtitle
Poems
Cover Image
- “A powerful and nuanced collection from a seasoned poet. Mullen’s ability to blend innovation with emotional depth will resonate with readers of contemporary poetry and academic collections.”—Library Journal
Poem Excerpt
As you plan your last meal, chunks of ancient glaciers are ice cubes melting in a bowl of steaming broth. If, in a season of superlatives, you survive the hottest month on record in the hottest summer of the hottest year in the hottest decade ever, you’ll want a cold shower and a sip of chilled champagne.
—from “Hotter Than July”
Body
Harryette Mullen is one of contemporary poetry’s most influential voices, for her inventive language play, keen wit, formal experimentation, and pointed critique of American culture. In Regaining Unconsciousness, her first new collection in twelve years, Mullen confronts the imminent dangers of our present to sound an alarm for our future, to wake us out of our complicity and despondency: Can we, even still, find our way to our unconscious selves, beyond our capacity to harm, subdue, and consume?
In eleven taut sections written in the eleventh hour of our collective being, these poems address climate change, corporate greed, racist violence, artificial intelligence, the pollution of our oceans, individualism at the cost of mutual wellness, and the consequences of not addressing these pressing issues. Mullen imagines, as we must, our apocalypse, and yet, in an astounding feat, she does so with playfulness and wry referentiality that make these poems surprisingly buoyant, funny, and readable. Our end may be inevitable, Mullen admits, but maybe we begin with gratitude.
In eleven taut sections written in the eleventh hour of our collective being, these poems address climate change, corporate greed, racist violence, artificial intelligence, the pollution of our oceans, individualism at the cost of mutual wellness, and the consequences of not addressing these pressing issues. Mullen imagines, as we must, our apocalypse, and yet, in an astounding feat, she does so with playfulness and wry referentiality that make these poems surprisingly buoyant, funny, and readable. Our end may be inevitable, Mullen admits, but maybe we begin with gratitude.
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About the Author
Credit: Judy Natal
Upcoming Events
Harryette Mullen reading and in conversation about REGAINING UNCONSCIOUSNESS with Tonya M. Foster at City Lights, co-sponsored by San Francisco State University
Date:
Location:
City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, CAview map
This event is free and open to the public. Stay tuned for more information.
Praise
- “This wildly imaginative work speaks to the present times with a powerful urgency.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[Mullen’s] love of the lexicon, of paradox, of nonsense recalls Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. . . . Her poems are multivoiced and packed with allusions ranging from the literary canon to pop culture. It is out of this ‘jagged mosaic,’ powered by a prodigious capacity for invention, that she constructs her own ‘masterpiece of mayhem.’”—Lorna Knowles Blake, The Hudson Review
- “Regaining Unconsciousness is just the poetry collection we need for an unstable, unpredictable world. Harryette Mullen treats us to a characteristically rich feast of sonic surprises and wicked wordplay . . . but be forewarned: some of these poems have ‘pointy teeth’ and real bite.”—Evie Shockley
- “Regaining Unconsciousness unfolds like wisdoms written on the walls of a maze of mirrors. . . . No poet is more mercurial while frank, more understated while exacting, or more enlightened while inquisitive. This book is every bit as virtuosic and singular as the great Harryette Mullen.”—Terrance Hayes
