V. Penelope Pelizzon

V. Penelope Pelizzon is the author of Nostos, which won the Hollis Summers Prize and the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, and Whose Flesh Is Flame, Whose Bone Is Time, which was a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. She is also the coauthor of Tabloid, Inc., a critical study of film, photography, and crime narratives. Her recognitions include a Hawthornden Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship, a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship, and a “Discovery”/The Nation Award. A diplomat’s spouse, she has spent the past two decades living and working part-time in Syria, Namibia, South Africa, Italy, and the United States.

A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye

Poems

By V. Penelope Pelizzon

Written over a decade while the author lived on four continents, A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye maps the cultural legacies we cherish against those we reject. Playful and wrenching by turns, with lines inflected by the spoken music of their Arabic, Oshiwambo, Xhosa, and Italian contexts, these profound poems explore a life where displacement is the norm. From choosing not to have children to wrestling with a left-hand stick shift in Johannesburg traffic to braising a camel loin for friends in Damascus, V. Penelope Pelizzon’s poems transport us into unexpected depths of feeling with language that is scintillant, luxurious, and wise.