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November
2007
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Praise for Drunk by Noon "These are not poems to be placed on a pedestal. They are to be read and, most importantly, enjoyed...she is doing something that captures attention, is truly artistic, and fills a void in contemporary poetry. It is the average people that Knox ends up speaking to...I, for one, am certainly happy that she continues to speak, and I will definitely keep listening." —Jacket "Knox continues to simultaneously pierce and please the reader...Knox's brusque no-nonsense voice can be rough to the touch at times, tough too, but it is always finely anchored in gorgeous language and sound-play that twists richly through the verse...Though many tout Knox's humor as her most popular quality, like the best technicians of comedy it is the jugular she goes for, by way of the jocular...From a landscape of Americana with its tumbleweeds, acid hits, red meat and f*cking, Knox's voice comes at us courageous and stouthearted sticking her flag deep in the soil of this weird and wicked world." —Harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog "This second book from Knox, a young New York poet, continues the playful romp through the warped Americana she began in her debut, A Gringo Like Me. Here, Knox gives voice to wayward teens, drug-addled sages and fat dogs fantasizing about killing babies—among other unsavory characters—through dramatic monologues and quick narrative sketches. [F]ascination with the down-and-out lurks behind Knox's layers of irony and comic distance. She's at her best and most entertaining in bursts of everyday surrealism—like the poem 'Pastoral with Internet Porn,' which bristles with energy and imagination." —Publishers Weekly Though Jennifer L. Knox writes with a chaotic and preternaturally inventive élan of a disgusting world untethered from the spirit, lost and locked in its own matrix of collective narcissistic excitement, she refuses not to love it. She writes of little durable people and little durable dogs, all with wide, durable spirits. What you get is the embarrassing truth that is our world—and Knox looking at it and us for what we are: a clutter of gorgeous, lovable kitsch. And she does so with what can only be called satiric empathy. In fact, she is without doubt one of the most empathic writers of recent decades. In short, she’s a freakin genius. —Gabriel Gudding
—Bill Knott
—Sarah Manguso Even more praise here. |
Drunk
by Noon
Jennifer
L. Knox was born in Lancaster, California—where absolutely
anything can be made into a bong. Her poems have appeared in the anthologies
The Best American Poetry (1997, 2003 and 2006), Great American
Prose Poems: From Poe to Present, Free Radicals: American Poets Before
Their First Books, and The Best American Erotic Poems: From
1800 to the Present. She has taught poetry writing at New York
University and Hunter College, and is available for children’s
parties, séances, and tradeshow booth demonstrations. For even
more specious information, see