Contenu
"New York Trilogy is comprised of three, long, multi-sequence poems ("A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy," "Ozone Journal," and "No Sign") that first appeared in Peter Balakian's last three books with this Press: Ziggurat (2010), Ozone Journal (2015, winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and No Sign (2022). As a long poem, the trilogy explores a number of cataclysmic events of our time, including the Armenian Genocide, Hiroshima and the Vietnam War, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, conflicts in the Middle East, and the geo-climate crisis. The poems follow the journey of a persona that evolves from a series of experiences in New York in the 1970s and 80s and into the first decade of the new century. It registers both personal and historical perspectives, creating layers of memory in the form of a dialogue between past and present, self and other, exploring political violence, art and music, love, divorce, and personal loss. As a book-length work of poetry, New York Trilogy joins the tradition of American long poems that includes works such as Hart Crane's The Bridge, William Carlos Williams's Paterson, and Charles Olson's Maximus Poems. Its appearance will be a publishing event"--