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"Margaret Ray is pulling back the curtains on our societal performance of culture, guiding an exposing light to the daily performance that is life in a woman's body. Selected by Stephanie Burt as the winner of the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, Margaret Ray's Good Grief, the Ground interrogates the everyday violences nonchalantly inflicted unto women through personal, political, and national lenses. Moving between adolescence and adulthood, Ray alternates between dark humor and heart-wrenching honesty to explore grief, anxiety, queer longing, girlhood, escape from an abusive relationship, and the dangers of lending language to a thing. With stunning wit and precision and attention, we see Ray show us what it is to be human: the mess of tenderness and darkness and animosity. Out of the heavy Florida dusk, out of peach juice and late-night swimming pool break-ins and grocery store aisles comes these completely captivating poems. In the words of Stephanie Burt: "Come and see. Take care. Dive in."--
About the author
Margaret Ray grew up in Gainesville, Florida and holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College. A winner of the Third Coast Poetry Prize and a Chapbook Fellowship from the Poetry Society of America for her chapbook
Superstitions of the Mid-Atlantic, her poems have appeared in
Narrative,
The Gettysburg Review,
Threepenny Review,
Michigan Quarterly Review,
Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She teaches in New Jersey.
Summary
Margaret Ray is pulling back the curtains on our societal performance of culture, guiding an exposing light to the daily performance that is life in a woman’s body.
Selected by Stephanie Burt as the winner of the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, Ray’s Good Grief, the Ground interrogates the everyday violences nonchalantly inflicted unto women through personal, political, and national lenses. Moving between adolescence and adulthood, Ray alternates between dark humor and heart-wrenching honesty to explore grief, anxiety, queer longing, girlhood, escape from an abusive relationship, and the dangers of lending language to a thing. With stunning wit and precision and attention, we see Ray show us what it is to be human: the mess of tenderness and darkness and animosity.
Out of the heavy Florida dusk, out of peach juice and late-night swimming pool break-ins and glances across grocery store aisles come these completely captivating poems. In the words of Stephanie Burt: “Come and see. Take care. Dive in.”
Foreword
National Advertising: Academy of American Poets Newsletter
Excerpts in various journals including The Adroit Journal, Frontier Poetry, Gulf Coast, Narrative, and Poet Lore.
eBook will be available on the publication date. eBook ISBN will be included on all press materials and on BOA’s website. BOA and author will promote eBook on social media.
Promotion through author’s website (margaretbray.com) Twitter (@mbrrray ), and Instagram (@m_rrray).
Buy-ins to relevant academic conferences, trade shows, and relevant publications. Currently considering: American Library Association Annual Meeting, CBSD Sales and Academic catalogs, etc.
Spring book announcements submitted to Publishers Weekly.
Online/social media campaign: Extensive promotion through BOA’s website, blog, e-newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Giveaway and takeover planned through BOA’s Instagram.
