Oil Courses by Williams-Noren, Carolyn
Oil Courses by Williams-Noren, Carolyn

Oil Courses

Winner of the 2025 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Grounded in deep concern about the climate...
$22.74 USD
$22.74 USD
Please hurry! Only 1112 left in stock
Author: Carolyn Williams-Noren
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: $22.74
Oil Courses by Williams-Noren, Carolyn

Oil Courses

$22.74
Oil Courses by Williams-Noren, Carolyn

Oil Courses

$22.74
Author: Carolyn Williams-Noren
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description

Winner of the 2025 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize

Grounded in deep concern about the climate crisis, Carolyn
Williams-Noren's Oil Courses recalls a family reliant on the oil
industry--her father worked for British Petroleum in Anchorage, Alaska--and a
summer spent in its service on Endicott Island. What "curriculum" has oil
offered each of us? To answer, Oil Courses turns to strange happenings in
the changing landscape and in our interior lives, magnifying odd scenes that
once seemed ordinary and filing them under the names of school subjects such as
physics, economics, and history.

In these poems, the absurd, the beautiful, and the alarming collide. Tiny fish begin to swim sideways,
poisoned. The permafrost melts. Whales are hunted and skinned. The high school
yearbook features students who have hit moose with their cars. The speaker of
one poem wins a trophy for an essay on the subject "What Petroleum Means to Me," presented
by a group of women called the "Petroleum Wives."

Oil Courses speaks to our collective reliance on exploitative industries and questions our
responsibilities and relationships to the natural world. These poems are droll,
revealing, and ultimately haunting.



Author: Carolyn Williams-Noren
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Published: 09/08/2026
Pages: 84
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.24lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.20d
ISBN: 9781606355114


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2026

About the Author

Carolyn Williams-Noren has published two poetry chapbooks, and her work has been in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, Willow Springs, and many other journals. She's earned Pushcart nominations and a Best American Essays notables mention, plus support from the McKnight Foundation, among other honors. See more at williams-noren.com.


Shipping & Return

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Review