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Natural history, work, queerness, and family collide in Interpretive Work. When they do, a deep stubborn will emerges, a belief in the unexpected beauty of the world—flaws and all. The poems of this collection foreground the role of the viewer—the interpreter "smudging self across what's seen." From neighborhood kids cussing in the cul-de-sac to marbled murrelets calling in Southeast Alaska, the poems of this book reach toward a moment where one finds "this unsettlement, / this beauty applauded at last." (read poems from the book) (order Interpretive Work) Praise for Interpretive Work In her marvelous debut collection, Elizabeth Bradfield probes the work of daily life, locating her speakers in family, intimate relationship, neighborhood, wilderness, and workplace. A sequence titled "Butch Poems" offers an unforgettable take on lesbian self-presentation, linking it to "Multi-Use Area" and others that explore how we "read" one another in the public sphere. In "Splitters and Joiners," the narrator addresses "the old arguments" of nomenclature, limning the book's focus on the interpretation of difference and sameness. Consider the economics of the speaker's grandmother in "Industry," seated at her machine, paying her son a nickel for every bird, sewing feathers "into/hats and ties she hoped to sell." These poems shimmer with asides, original tropes, self-deprecating wit and a scientist's passion for accuracy. Interpretive Work signals the arrival of an important new voice among us. Bradfield's poems guide us alertly into this treacherous territory pocked with political pitfalls and theoretical quagmires. One hardly notices the perils that abound because Bradfield is such a deft naturalist, with a keen eye for the queer details of the "ass-bastard gorgeous" varieties of nature, human and non-human. Bradfield's poems delight in the tricks of language and nature. Bradfield's very serious task is not to praise daffodils or morning dew (thank goodness), but to show "people what to see in what they see."... Bradfield is much more than a naturalist with a pen. Her poetry crosses and redefines boundaries, illuminating the silent, isolating misconceptions in the human narrative. ...Bradfield applies this 'co-habitation' of populations with two other groups: the straight and the queer one—'joined to us. Separate from.' The use of such words as 'natural,' 'vulnerability,' and the outcry at the imposition of a dominant group over the well-being of another suddenly take on a more complicated resonance. You'll come away from Interpretive Work feeling inspired and illuminated. You'll want to fall, headfirst, deeply in love with the world and with someone in it, knowing you'll get your heart broken time and time again, knowing it will be worth it. AnthologiesLiz's work is in the anthologies Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry (Autumn House Press, 2007), Best New Poets 2006 (Meridian Press), and The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel (2006). Find them all at Amazon.com. |
