Evolution

Myles' collection finds the game-changing writer keying lines in an idiomatic, euphoric style that The New York Times has called "one of the essential voices in American poetry."

About the author

Eileen Myles is the author of more than twenty books, including Afterglow (a dog memoir), Inferno (a poet's novel), Chelsea Girls, and Cool For You. Myles's many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, four Lambda Literary Awards, the Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing, as well as grants from Creative Capital (nonfiction) and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (poetry), and the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers grant.

Summary

The first all-new collection of poems since 2011’s Snowflake/different streets—and following the critically acclaimed Afterglow (a dog memoir), as well as the volume of selected poems, I Must Be Living Twice—here, in Evolution, we find the eminent, exuberant writer at the forefront of American literature, upending genre in a new vernacular that enacts—like nobody else—the way we speak (inside and out) today. Evolution, with its channeling of Quakers, Fresca, and cell phones, radiates vital insight, purpose, and risk, like in these opening lines of the title poem:

Something

unearthly

about

today

so I buy

a Diet Coke &

a newspaper

a version of “me”

something

about me on the

earth & its sneakers

& feeling like

the earth’s furniture

but that can’t be

true or like

the coke & the Times

it’s true for a little

while.

Additional text

Praise for Evolution: Named a Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2018 by New York “In Eileen Myles’s newest book of poetry, Evolution, we encounter an arrival, a voice always becoming, unpinnable and queer. Myles’s new poems are transformations, and perhaps a culmination of the poet’s previous inquiries into love, gender, poetry, America, and its politics . . . The form of Myles’s work rivals its subject matter in intimacy. The lines in Evolution are physical, a body unleashed but not yet comfortable and not without fear. The short lines rush down the page, movement as touch, touch as freedom.”—Natalie Diaz, New York Times Book Review
“With the publication of their new book of poetry, Evolution, Myles explores, among other things, the loss of their mother, who died in April of last year; this current political era; past relationships; and their new dog, Honey . . . Myles [wants] people to find the accessibility of poetry: in life, in love, in Instagram, in everything.”—Vanity Fair“Evolution, Eileen Myles’s first all-new collection of poetry since 2011, circles back to classic themes such as their love of dogs, loneliness, and parental loss. These poems, however, are also immediate and pressingly contemporary. Myles is conducting an intimate exchange with the government, peering into their computer and saying hello to whoever might be surveilling them.”—Lambda Literary “Myles relentlessly questions, analyzes, and even loathes the self, combining fanciful reveries with non sequitur in the New York School style . . . Effectively brings vague feelings into sharp relief with surprising imagery and lighter moments of mockery reveal the contradictions in human behavior . . . Myles has long excelled at capturing outsiderness, and feelings of being lost and misunderstood are plenty evident here.”—Publishers Weekly “Rich in vernacular and innovative line breaks, these poems ask to be read out loud . . . Myles crafts poems of a personal nature in Evolution. In very short lines, they are also reflective, contemporary, political, erotic and even aphoristic . . . In a bold collection of poems, Eileen Myles reinforces their justifiable fame as the unabashed voice of what’s left of New York’s downtown edginess.”—Shelf Awareness Praise for Afterglow (a dog memoir)

“A mutt elegy in a million . . . Myles gets at something no other dog book I’ve read has gotten at quite this distinctly: The sense of wordless connection and spiritual expansion you feel when you love and are loved by a creature who’s not human.”—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, NPR

“Playful, heartfelt, wise, compassionate, fantastical and audaciously confessional.”—New York Times Book Review

“A wry, gorgeous, psychedelic effort to plumb the subject of dog-human partnership . . . Afterglow is like the Just Kids of dog books.”—New Yorker

“Cosmic, and charming . . . far-flung, and wonderfully loving.”—Boston Globe

“An ever-deepening investigation into the nature of human-being-ness, self-knowledge, and knowing things outside of yourself.”—Bookforum

“Part elegy, part meditation . . . poignant, sweeping.”—O Magazine

“Fantastical . . . wrenching.”—Rolling Stone

“[An] exquisite slapstick tragedy . . . a radical memoir.” —Village Voice

“Tender, lyrical.” —Buzzfeed

“Gritty, naturalistic . . . like a good grunge song.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“Extraordinary . . . brings language to the nonverbal intimacy of a human life lived with a dog.” —Literary Hub

“Wild and unruly . . . lively, conversational, and highly intelligent.” —Vice

“A perfect example of what happens when you mix raw language with emotion, pets with loss, and sexuality with socioculturalism.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)


“A rare new breed of dog memoir; think Patti Smith’s Just Kids, not Josh Grogan’s Marley and Me, absinthe not saccharine.”—Library Journal (starred review)


“Poetic, heartrending, soothing, and funny.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Myles depicts the raw pathos of loss with keen insight.”—Publishers Weekly

Product details

• Authors: Eileen Myles
• Publisher: Grove Atlantic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9780802147714
• ISBN: 978-0-8021-4771-4
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 207 mm x 17 mm
• Weight: 254 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; USA, POETRY / General, Poetry, United States of America, USA, c 2010 to c 2019, Relating to middle adulthood, TOPICAL / LGBT