Controvertibles - University of Pittsburgh Press

Controvertibles features more of the refined brilliance and delicate lyricism of this poet, cast in a more meditative mode. Throughout, she examines cultural objects by lifting them out of their usual settings and repositioning them in front of new, disparate backdrops. Doug Flutie's famous Hail Mary pass and Rutger Hauer's role in Blade Runner are contextualized within the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Bob Beamon's world-record-setting long jump in the 1968 Olympics is slowed down and examined in the style of The Matrix's revolutionary bullet time.

Samantha Smith, Richard Nixon, the Shroud of Turin, Igor Stravinsky, the largo from Handel's Xerxes, the resurrection of Lazarus, and the groundbreaking 1984 Apple Computer Super Bowl commercial are among the many disparate people and objects Barry uses to explore the multifaceted nature of existence.

More Praise

The poems in Quan Barry's new book, Controvertibles, similarly take disparate topics and by paring them achieve a new level of understanding of the self in the world. . . . The book's energy level remains tirelessly high throughout.

Rain Taxi

An experimental book with considerable zip. . . . An authentic lyricism burns through to great effect.

Cold Mountain Review

Table of Contents

Sample

72 Pages, 6 x 9 in.

September, 2004

isbn : 9780822958604

Series

Pitt Poetry Series

Subjects

about the author

Quan Barry is the author of three previous poetry collections: Asylum, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize; Controvertibles; and Water Puppets, winner of the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. She is also the author of the novel She Weeps Each Time You’re Born. Barry has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in both poetry and fiction. She is professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

learn more