Join us in celebrating the launch of Kathleen Peirce’s new collection, Lion’s Paw (Miami University Press). This event will take place via Zoom, and Kathleen will be joined by poet Joanna Klink, author of The Nightfields.

Lion’s Paw and The Nightfields can be purchased via our online store or call us on 512-322-2097 for curbside pick up or to make an appointment to visit.

In this gratifyingly dense and philosophically ambitious sixth collection, Peirce considers the relationship between perception and the lyric imagination. “When from the wet point on a spiral,/ dreams approach, most nights increase themselves/ like wings, like a tumbler of perfume in flames,” Peirce muses in language as lyrical as it is rife with dramatic tension. One of her many poetic gifts is her ability to offer a sense of urgency while depicting inner experience: “The viewer disregards the view,/ looks neither at the window nor through, but forward/ across the table where the right hand draws a face in profile, whose?, and the left/ is a weight on the sheet.” The syntax and juxtaposition of Peirce’s lines reveal the complexities of self-reflection, and the inexact, self-doubting nature of thought. Elsewhere, she remarks, “Some things are prettier than the day, and some/ will force lightheadedness onto thinking about them.” This is an impressive addition to Peirce’s distinguished body of work. —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Kathleen Peirce’s Lion’s Paw (Miami University Press 2021) is her sixth collection of poems. She’s also the author of Vault (New Michigan Press 2017), The Ardors (Ausable/Copper Canyon 2004), The Oval Hour (University of Iowa Press 1999), Divided Touch, Divided Color (Windhover Press 1995), and Mercy (University of Pittsburgh Press 1991). She’s the recipient of a Whiting Award, and fellowships from The National Foundation for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She teaches poetry in the MFA program at Texas State University.

Joanna Klink is the author of five books of poetry, most recently The Nightfields, which was published by Penguin last July. She has received awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Trust of Amy Lowell, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She teaches at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin. The New York Times calls The Nightfields “a remarkable volume,” and it was named one of five “Best Poetry Collections of 2020” by the Washington Post.

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Join Zoom event:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88224164047?pwd=SCtQSVVyVSt2M05idG1LSUdqZGQrQT09

Meeting ID: 882 2416 4047
Passcode: 643449

You can also watch this event live on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCclZdTQQCBXU1-PN9dBPR6g.