Black Aperture

2013 National Book Award Finalist
In his moving debut collection, Matt Rasmussen faces the tragedy of his brother's suicide, refusing to focus on the expected pathos, blurring the edge between grief and humor. In "Outgoing," the speaker erases his brother's answering machine message to save his family from "the shame of dead you / answering calls." In other poems, once-ordinary objects become dreamlike. A buried light bulb blooms downward, "a flower / of smoldering filaments." A refrigerator holds an evening landscape, "a tinfoil lake," "vegetables / dying in the crisper." Destructive and redemptive, Black Aperture opens to the complicated entanglements of mourning: damage and healing, sorrow and laughter, and torment balanced with moments of relief.

Author: Matt Rasmussen
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 05/13/2013
Pages: 72
Weight: 0.24lbs
Size: 8.45h x 5.54w x 0.21d
ISBN: 9780807150863


Award: Walt Whitman Award - Winner
Award: National Book Awards - Finalist
Award: Minnesota Book Award - Winner