UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Book Jacket: "Primer of the Obsolete" by D. Glancy

Diane Glancy

Winner of the 2003 Juniper Prize for Poetry

This remarkable collection of poems explores the conjoined cultures of Indian and European, the revisions the conquered race must face, and the disruption that results from the attempt to combine divergent cultures in a single being. These poems speak from a four-cornered world: Cherokee and white, Christian and conjuring. They attempt to retrieve fragments of language from a nearly erased culture. At times, they speak in the spirit of the remembered language with the new language that is not fully formed in the understanding of the narrator.

The poems have roots in history, religion, and illiteracy. They are inspired by folk artists who use materials and textures at hand—enamel and cornmeal on plywood, house paint on tar and tin, model airplane paint on corrugated scrap metal. The resulting lyrics walk the boundary between worlds, weaving remnants of the old way of viewing the world with pieces of the new world, such as a clapper that turns lights on and off. The experimental text revisits the gap between past and present. The past is just beneath a newly painted surface. The newly painted surface is not quite dry.

"A fascinating and satisfying read."
Synecdoche

"Since her 1996 novel Pushing the Bear, Glancy has established herself as one of the country’s most versatile and prolific writers."

Publishers Weekly

Diane Glancy is a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she teaches Native American literature and creative writing. Her recent books include the novels The Mask Maker, Designs of the Night Sky, and Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea. Among her poetry collections are The Relief of America, The Stones for a Pillow, and The Shadow’s Horse. A new collection of essays, In-Between Places, is forthcoming.

Poetry
80 pp.
$14.95t paper, ISBN 978-1-55849-444-2
May 2004
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