If Nothing

In If Nothing, the speaker confronts addiction, the learned behaviors and expectations of masculinity, fatherhood, and the feelings of guilt and shame, attempting to understand them better and in doing so, find redemption and forgiveness. The poems often call us to listen to ourselves closer and ask, how do we forgive ourselves? This is a book that wants readers to feel their feelings without shame or remorse. The tension between the physical and emotional, like the imagery of crafting with sharp tools in concert with the speaker's inebriated state, is well-wrought and moves us to feel the precariousness and delicate nature of the speaker's physical and emotional reality and the vulnerability that's exposed by the collision of the two. Earnest and vulnerable poems strive toward redemption, understanding, self-awareness, and the possibility of joy. The book feels almost like a second coming-of-age anthem, or one for the "real" coming of age-the one we all experience mid-life when things get real in a new way.

Author: Matthew Nienow
Publisher: Alice James Books
Published: 01/14/2025
Pages: 100
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781949944693

About the Author
Matthew Nienow lives in Port Townsend, Washington with his wife and two sons. Professionally trained as a wooden boatbuilder, he spent over a decade building small boats and custom wooden paddle boards. He is the author of House of Water (Alice James, 2016) and three earlier chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, New England Review and Poetry, which awarded him a 2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He has also received fellowships, grants, and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Elizabeth George Foundation, Artist Trust of Washington State, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and 4Culture of Seattle. He holds a BA in English from St. Olaf College, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Washington and an Associate degree in Traditional Small Craft from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Mental Health Counseling, working on several new manuscripts, and serving on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books.